Conflict of Interest

A conflict of interest exists when a person’s professional judgment regarding a manuscript could be influenced, or perceived to be influenced, by financial, personal, academic, or institutional factors. Jurnal Rekayasa Industri (JRI) requires all authors, editors, and peer reviewers to disclose any potential conflicts of interest to ensure transparency, objectivity, and scientific integrity throughout the publication process.

Having a potential conflict of interest is not inherently unethical; what is critical is that it is explicitly declared and managed transparently.

1. Types of Conflict of Interest

In the context of Industrial Engineering and Management research, conflicts of interest may arise in several forms:
Type Examples in Industrial Engineering & Management Research
Financial Grants, research funding, employment, honoraria, or royalties; commercial ownership, development, or sales of software tools, simulation packages, optimization algorithms, ERP modules, or proprietary hardware evaluated in the study.
Personal Family relationships, close personal friendships, or professional rivalries with authors, editors, or peer reviewers.
Academic Recent research collaboration or co-authorship (within the last three years); supervisor–student relationships; competing research projects or intellectual property on the same specific topic.
Institutional Employment at the same university, department, or company as an author; involvement, management, or consultancy roles in the specific industrial plant, supply chain network, or organization being evaluated in the case study.

2. Responsibilities of Authors

  • Declaration Statement: All authors must explicitly declare any financial or non-financial conflicts of interest in the Declarations section of their manuscript prior to peer review.
  • Funding Statement: Authors must disclose all sources of financial support, grant numbers, and sponsorship details in the Funding Statement.
  • No Conflict Declaration: If no conflicts of interest exist, authors must state:
    "The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article."
  • Reviewer Exclusions: Authors may request that specific individuals not be invited as reviewers for their submission, provided a valid rationale is submitted in the Comments for the Editor box during online submission.

3. Responsibilities of Editors

  • Recusal: Editors will not handle manuscripts in which they have a competing financial, personal, or institutional interest. Such manuscripts are reassigned to another unbiased member of the Editorial Board.
  • Editorial Submissions: Manuscripts submitted by members of the JRI Editorial Board are assigned to an independent editor. The submitting board member will have no access to the review process, reviewer identities, or editorial decisions.
  • Editor-in-Chief Submissions: Manuscripts submitted by the Editor-in-Chief are handled entirely by an alternate senior board member, with complete restriction of access for the Editor-in-Chief.
  • Institutional Conflicts: Wherever possible, manuscripts authored by researchers affiliated with Universitas Widya Mataram will be assigned to external handling editors and peer reviewers from other institutions.
  • Data Confidentiality: Editors are strictly prohibited from using unpublished information or data from submitted manuscripts for their own research without explicit written consent from the authors.

4. Responsibilities of Reviewers

  • Mandatory Disclosure & Recusal: Reviewers must decline the invitation to review or notify the Editor-in-Chief immediately if they perceive any conflict of interest with the authors, institutions, or work under evaluation—including shared institutional affiliation or co-authorship/collaboration within the past three years.
  • Identity Awareness: Reviewers must inform the editor if they know or suspect the identity of the author(s) during the double-blind review process.
  • Confidentiality: Reviewers must keep all manuscript details strictly confidential and must not utilize unpublished material for personal gain or research.

5. Handling Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest

If an undisclosed conflict of interest is identified before or after publication, JRI will investigate and resolve the issue in accordance with the flowcharts and core practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Depending on the severity of the case, potential editorial actions include:
  1. Requesting formal written clarification from the concerned parties.
  2. Re-evaluating the manuscript through independent peer review.
  3. Publishing a formal Corrigendum/Correction to append the missing conflict statement.
  4. Issuing an official Retraction of the article in severe cases of deliberate misrepresentation (in accordance with Jurnal Rekayasa Industri (JRI) Correction and Retraction Policy).