Authorship

An author is a person who has made a substantial contribution to the creation of a manuscript. The following four factors are used to determine authorship:

• providing significant contributions to the work's idea or design; or the work's acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; AND
• drafting or editing the work critically for substantial intellectual substance; AND
• giving final approval of the published version; AND
• accepting responsibility for all aspects of the work, including ensuring that any questions about the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work, should be thoroughly investigated and resolved.

Acknowledgement

Individuals who contributed to the production of an article but did not meet the criteria for authorship should be recognised. Organisations that provided financial or other types of support should also be recognised accordingly.

Changes in authorship

The adjustments will be made following COPE specifications whenever revisions to the authorship of a manuscript or a published article are required. Only corresponding authors have the authority to request a change in authorship, and they must contact the editor directly.

Submission of Manuscript

Before submitting a manuscript, authors should read the Author Guidelines on the journal website. The manuscript should be formatted following the journal's style and standards.

The authors named on the manuscript should meet the authorship standards outlined above. Each author's contribution should be specified as much as feasible.

Before submission, all authors should approve the final version of the work. When a paper is submitted, it is presumed that all authors have already reviewed the article and have given their approval for it to be submitted.

All authors' contact information, including full names, affiliations and email addresses, should be included in the manuscript.

A conflict of interest declaration should be included in the manuscript.

The manuscript should be submitted via the journal website.

Conflict of interest

All financial/relevant interests that may have influenced the writing of the article should be disclosed by the authors.

Reviewers should state any potential conflicts of interest and, if required, decline to examine any manuscript with which they believe they have a conflict. Editors should also reject any manuscript that has a potential conflict of interest. Manuscripts that fall into this category will be reassigned to other editors.

Confidentiality

A manuscript that has been submitted is considered confidential. UNIMAS Journals will not reveal the submitted manuscript to anyone except those involved in processing and preparing the manuscript for publication (if accepted), such as editorial staff, corresponding authors, reviewers and editors. In suspected situations of misconduct, however, a manuscript may be disclosed to members of the UNIMAS Journals Ethics Committee and institutions/organisations that may require it for the resolution of the misconduct.

Misconduct

Misconduct is defined as a violation of this editorial policy, journal policies, publishing ethics, or any applicable ethical guidelines/policies. Any such behaviours that endanger or damage the research/publication process are considered potential misconduct. COPE rules shall be followed in the investigation of suspected occurrences of misconduct.

Correction and retraction of articles

Corrections to a published article may be made with the permission of the journal's editor. The editors will determine the magnitude of the revisions. Minor changes are directly made to the original article. However, in essential corrections, the original article will be published alongside the revised version. Both the original and the modified versions will be linked. The rationale for the significant change to the manuscript will also be announced in a statement. When necessary, articles will be retracted following the COPE guidelines.