Conflict of Interest Policy
1. Introduction
The International Journal of Theory and Application in Elementary and Secondary School Education (IJTAESE) is committed to maintaining transparency, integrity, impartiality, and editorial independence in scholarly publishing. This policy follows the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and applies to authors, reviewers, editors, editorial board members, and the publisher.
2. Definition and Scope
A conflict of interest (COI) arises when financial or non-financial interests could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, research findings, peer-review assessments, or editorial decisions.
Conflicts may include research funding, employment, consultancy, financial relationships, personal connections, institutional affiliations, academic collaborations, or professional competition.
3. Disclosure and Management
Authors: All authors must disclose relevant financial and non-financial competing interests during manuscript submission. Funding sources must be declared separately. Published articles must include a conflict of interest statement, even when no competing interests exist.
Reviewers: Reviewers must disclose potential conflicts before accepting review assignments and decline or withdraw from reviews when their impartiality may be compromised. Manuscript confidentiality must be maintained.
Editors and Editorial Board: Editors must disclose relevant conflicts and withdraw from handling manuscripts involving personal, professional, financial, or institutional interests. Such manuscripts must be assigned to an independent editor.
Publisher: IJTAESE is published by Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia. The publisher must respect editorial independence and must not influence manuscript evaluations or publication decisions.
4. Implementation and Post-Publication Actions
The editorial team assesses disclosed conflicts and may request clarification, replace reviewers, reassign editors, or take other appropriate measures. Undisclosed conflicts identified after publication will be investigated in accordance with COPE guidance and may result in corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions when warranted.
Authors may use the following declaration when no conflicts exist:
“The authors declare that they have no known financial or non-financial competing interests that could have influenced the research reported in this article.”
5. COPE References
IJTAESE refers to the following guidelines: