Allegation of Research Misconduct

Sahaja: Journal Sharia and Humanities takes allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously. We follow the principles and flowcharts of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) when handling them.

What counts as misconduct

  • Fabrication or falsification of data, sources, or results;
  • Plagiarism, including self-plagiarism and unattributed use of another person’s work;
  • Duplicate or redundant submission or publication;
  • Authorship manipulation (ghost, gift, or guest authorship);
  • Undisclosed conflicts of interest;
  • Unethical conduct in research involving human participants, or failure to obtain required permissions;
  • Manipulation of the peer review process, including fake reviewer identities or reviewer collusion.

How to submit an allegation

Anyone, including readers, reviewers, editors, and institutions, may report a concern by email to the editorial office at sahaja@darunnajah.ac.id, with the subject line “Research Misconduct Allegation”. Please include:

  1. The title, authors, and DOI (or submission ID) of the article concerned;
  2. A clear description of the concern; and
  3. Supporting evidence, such as links, documents, or similarity reports.

Allegations are handled confidentially, and the identity of the person reporting is not disclosed to the authors without their consent where possible. Anonymous allegations are considered only when they come with verifiable evidence.

How allegations are handled

  1. The editorial office acknowledges receipt, and the Editor-in-Chief makes a preliminary assessment of whether the allegation is credible and within the journal’s remit.
  2. The authors (or reviewers or editors concerned) are informed and given the opportunity to respond with explanations and evidence.
  3. Where needed, the Editor-in-Chief consults the Editorial Board, independent experts, or the authors’ institution.
  4. A decision is made and the parties are informed.

Possible outcomes

  • No further action, when the allegation is not supported;
  • A correction or erratum;
  • An expression of concern;
  • Retraction of the article, as described in Correction and Retraction;
  • Rejection of a manuscript under review, and notification of the authors’ institution or funder;
  • A restriction on future submissions to the journal.

Complaints about the editorial process itself may also be sent to the same address and are reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief, or by another editor when the complaint concerns the Editor-in-Chief.