Conflict of Interest

1. Definition

A conflict of interest exists when a person’s financial, professional, personal, or academic interests could affect, or could reasonably be seen to affect, their judgement in conducting, reporting, reviewing, or publishing research. A conflict of interest is not in itself wrongdoing. What matters is that it is disclosed and managed properly.

2. Types of Conflicts of Interest

Everyone involved in the publication process must disclose any relevant interests, including but not limited to:

  • Financial interests: research funding, grants, employment, consultancy fees, honoraria, shares, or other financial relationships with organizations that may gain or lose from the results. In industrial engineering and management research, this includes relationships with the companies, factories, MSMEs (UMKM), or service organizations used as case studies; manufacturers and suppliers of machines, tools, or ergonomic products; and vendors of software for simulation, optimization, ERP, CAD/CAM, or quality management.
  • Professional and company involvement: being employed by, owning, managing, or consulting for the company or organization studied in the manuscript, or holding a role in a government agency or company whose processes, products, or policies are evaluated in the manuscript.
  • Personal relationships: close family or personal relationships with an author, reviewer, or editor of the manuscript.
  • Academic relationships: working at the same institution or department, recent co-authorship (within the last three years), supervisor–student relationships, or academic rivalry.
  • Intellectual property: patents, patent applications, copyrights, or commercial rights to methods, product designs, tools, or software discussed in the manuscript.
  • Non-financial interests: strong personal, political, or institutional positions that could influence the objectivity of the work.

3. Responsibilities and Handling

a. Authors

  • All authors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest when submitting the manuscript, through the “Comments to the Editor” field in OJS and in a Conflict of Interest statement in the manuscript, placed before the References section.
  • All sources of funding must be stated in the Acknowledgement section, including grant numbers where applicable.
  • If the research uses data from a company or organization where an author works or has a business relationship, this must be stated in the Conflict of Interest statement.
  • If there is no conflict, authors must state this explicitly (see the examples below).
  • If an undisclosed conflict comes to light after publication, the authors must inform the editor promptly. The editor will assess the case and, where necessary, publish a correction or take further action under the journal’s Correction and Retraction Policy.

b. Reviewers

  • Reviewers must decline a review invitation if they have a conflict of interest, for example if they work at the same institution as the authors, have co-authored with them in the last three years, are connected to the company studied, or have a competing commercial interest.
  • If reviewers recognize the authors or identify a conflict during the review, they must notify the editor immediately and stop reviewing until the editor decides how to proceed.
  • Reviewers must not use any information from the manuscript for their own benefit or research before the article is published.

c. Editors and Editorial Staff

  • Editors must not handle a manuscript in which they have a conflict of interest. Such a manuscript is assigned to another editor with no conflict.
  • Manuscripts from editorial team members or from Universitas Kadiri: manuscripts authored by members of the editorial team, or by authors affiliated with Universitas Kadiri as the publisher, go through the same blind peer review as all other manuscripts. They are handled by an editor who has no conflict with the authors, and are reviewed by reviewers from outside Universitas Kadiri. The author-editor has no access to the review process or to the decision on their own manuscript.
  • If it is unclear whether a conflict exists, the Editor-in-Chief decides. If the Editor-in-Chief is the one involved, the decision is made by a Section Editor who has no conflict.

d. Publisher

Universitas Kadiri, through the Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, as the publisher, does not interfere in editorial decisions. Funding from the institution, author fees, or support from partner organizations (INTAKINDO and BKSTI) has no influence on whether a manuscript is accepted or rejected. Editorial decisions are based only on scientific merit, the results of peer review, and the journal’s focus and scope.

4. Transparency and Disclosure

  • Conflict of interest statements by authors are published together with the article.
  • Any conflict of interest affecting an editorial decision is recorded by the editor.
  • If a significant conflict is found after publication, JATI UNIK will publish a correction, an expression of concern, or a retraction, as appropriate, following the Correction and Retraction Policy.
  • Failure to disclose a significant conflict of interest is treated as a breach of publication ethics and handled according to COPE guidance.