1. Commitment to Research Integrity

Economics, Business and Management Science Journal (EBMSJ) (Online ISSN: 2775-3794) and its publisher, Mahesa Research Center, take all allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously. We follow the procedures and flowcharts established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) to investigate and resolve suspected misconduct regarding both submitted manuscripts and published articles.

2. Scope of Research and Publication Misconduct

Misconduct includes, but is not limited to:

• Data Fabrication: Inventing empirical data, survey responses, financial statements, or econometric outputs and recording or reporting them as authentic.
• Data Falsification: Manipulating research datasets, omitting outliers deceptively, or altering statistical/econometric results such that the research is not accurately represented.
• Plagiarism and Redundant Publication: Appropriating another person's ideas, data, or text without proper attribution, or publishing substantially the same article in more than one journal (salami slicing or duplicate submission).
• Peer Review Manipulation: Submitting fabricated reviewer identities/emails or attempting to compromise the anonymity of the double-blind review process.
• Authorship Misconduct & Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest: Ghost/gift authorship, commercial paper-mill submissions, or failure to disclose financial/institutional conflicts of interest.

3. Investigation Procedure (COPE Protocol)

1. Receipt & Confidentiality: Whistleblowers, readers, reviewers, or editors may report suspected misconduct with supporting evidence to the Editor-in-Chief (mahesainstitute@gmail.com). All allegations are handled with strict confidentiality.
2. Initial Assessment: The Editor-in-Chief and Ethics Committee evaluate the credibility and documentary evidence of the allegation within 14 working days.
3. Author Inquiry: The corresponding author (and co-authors) are contacted in writing and given a fair opportunity (typically 14–30 days) to respond and provide raw datasets, ethics approvals, or clarifications.
4. Institutional Referral: If the authors' response is unsatisfactory or inconclusive, EBMSJ may contact the authors' affiliated institution, LPPM, or ethics board to request an official investigation.
5. Sanctions & Corrective Actions: Depending on the severity of confirmed misconduct, EBMSJ will apply appropriate sanctions: immediate rejection of a pending manuscript, publication of an Expression of Concern during an ongoing investigation, formal Retraction of a published article, and a prohibition on future submissions for 1 to 3 years.