Ethical Standards

Maspul Journal of Community Empowerment (MJCE) is committed to maintaining high ethical standards in all aspects of scholarly publishing. The journal upholds integrity, transparency, accountability, fairness, and academic responsibility in the submission, review, editorial, and publication processes. All parties involved in the journal, including authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher, are expected to adhere to responsible and ethical academic conduct.

• Originality: Authors must submit original manuscripts that have not been published and are not under consideration elsewhere.
• Accuracy: Authors must present community service activities, findings, outcomes, and conclusions accurately and honestly.
• Proper Acknowledgment: All relevant sources, references, data, and prior works must be properly cited.
• Authorship: Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made significant contributions to the work.
• Conflict of Interest: Authors must disclose any financial, institutional, or personal conflict of interest that may influence the manuscript.
• Ethical Implementation: Community service or empowerment activities involving participants, institutions, or communities must be conducted responsibly and respectfully.

• Editorial Independence: Editors must make editorial decisions based solely on academic merit, relevance, clarity, and contribution.
• Fair Evaluation: Manuscripts must be assessed without discrimination related to gender, race, religion, nationality, institutional affiliation, or personal background.
• Confidentiality: Editors must protect the confidentiality of manuscripts and reviewer reports.
• Conflict of Interest: Editors should avoid handling manuscripts when a conflict of interest exists.
• Integrity of the Record: Editors should take reasonable action when ethical problems, misconduct, or major errors are identified.

• Confidentiality: Reviewers must treat all manuscripts as confidential documents.
• Objectivity: Reviews should be conducted fairly, objectively, and supported by scholarly reasoning.
• Constructive Feedback: Reviewers are expected to provide respectful, helpful, and academically useful comments.
• Acknowledgment of Sources: Reviewers should identify important relevant works not cited by the authors when necessary.
• Conflict of Interest: Reviewers should decline review assignments when a conflict of interest may affect their judgment.

The journal does not tolerate plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate submission, data fabrication, data falsification, citation manipulation, or any other form of academic misconduct.

Manuscripts found to contain unethical practices may be rejected, returned for clarification, or investigated further by the editorial team. If serious misconduct is identified after publication, the journal may publish corrections, notices of concern, or retractions.

When substantial errors or ethical concerns are identified, the editorial team will evaluate the issue carefully and take appropriate action to protect the integrity of the academic record.

Such action may include requests for revision, clarification statements, editorial notices, corrections, retractions, or removal of published content in accordance with the severity of the case and journal policy.

MJCE is committed to fostering ethical scholarly communication and responsible publication practices in the field of community service and community empowerment. All contributors are expected to support the integrity, credibility, and quality of the journal through compliance with these ethical standards.