COPE

Social Science and Governance Review (SSGR) is a member and adherent of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The journal follows the COPE Core Practices and applies its guidelines in handling ethical issues throughout the editorial process.

COPE provides international standards for the ethical conduct of scholarly publishing. SSGR aligns its policies for authors, editors, and reviewers with the following COPE principles:

  • Originality and authorship — only original work with proper attribution is accepted; ghost or honorary authorship is not permitted.
  • Confidentiality — manuscripts under review are confidential and must not be shared or used for personal advantage.
  • Conflict of interest — all parties must disclose relationships or interests that could influence the review or publication decision.
  • Peer review integrity — editorial decisions are based on academic merit and reviewer recommendations, not on external influence.
  • Misconduct response — allegations of plagiarism, data manipulation, duplicate publication, or citation manipulation are investigated per COPE flowcharts and may result in correction, retraction, or removal.
  • Transparency — corrections, retractions, and expressions of concern are published openly.

COPE Flowcharts

The editorial team applies the standard COPE flowcharts when handling ethical dilemmas, including:

  • Suspected plagiarism
  • Suspected fabricated or manipulated data
  • Authorship disputes or changes
  • Undisclosed conflicts of interest
  • Duplicate or redundant publication
  • Reviewer misconduct
  • Editor misconduct

For the complete set of COPE guidelines, flowcharts, and discussion documents, visit the official website: https://publicationethics.org/.

Allegations of publication misconduct should be reported to the Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Alexander Phuk Tjilen (alextjilen@gmail.com).