Senarai: Journal of Islamic Heritage and Civilization (hereinafter referred to as “Senarai”) affirms its commitment to the highest standards of publication ethics, editorial transparency, academic integrity, and responsible scholarly communication. This ethical statement applies to all parties involved in the publication process, including authors, the Editor-in-Chief, the Managing Editor, editors, reviewers, editorial administrative staff, the publisher, and affiliated institutions participating in or influencing the editorial and publication workflow.

This policy is established in accordance with the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and is intended to ensure integrity, accountability, transparency, and ethical consistency throughout all stages of scholarly publication. The Journal is dedicated to supporting rigorous scholarly communication across fields that involve historical inquiry, textual interpretation, cultural heritage, religious studies, manuscript studies, archival studies, and related interdisciplinary research.

As a journal dealing with sources, interpretations, documentary evidence, and culturally sensitive materials, Senarai requires authors, editors, and reviewers to uphold ethical responsibility in the interpretation, citation, preservation, representation, and dissemination of scholarly knowledge.

1. Publication Decisions and Editorial Responsibility

   The Editor-in-Chief bears full responsibility for the final editorial decision regarding acceptance, revision, or rejection of submitted manuscripts. The Managing Editor coordinates the editorial workflow, ensures that each submission moves through the process in an orderly manner, monitors deadlines, and maintains communication flow among authors, editors, reviewers, and administrative staff. Editors assist the editorial process through manuscript screening, communication with reviewers, editorial assessment, and recommendation building. Editorial decisions are based exclusively on scholarly merit, originality, methodological rigor, ethical integrity, relevance to the journal scope, and contribution to academic knowledge.

   Editorial decisions must remain independent from commercial interests, sponsorship, institutional pressure, personal relationships, or non-academic considerations. The Editor-in-Chief may consult the Managing Editor, editors, and reviewers during the editorial process; however, final responsibility for publication decisions remains solely with the Editor-in-Chief.

2. Fair Play and Editorial Independence

   Manuscripts shall be evaluated solely based on intellectual content, academic quality, relevance, and ethical compliance. Editors and reviewers must not discriminate against authors based on race, ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, gender, religious belief, institutional affiliation, political philosophy, disability, or personal identity.

3. Confidentiality

   The Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor, Editors, reviewers, and editorial administrative staff must maintain the confidentiality of all submitted manuscripts and editorial communications. Information concerning submitted manuscripts may only be disclosed to the corresponding author, reviewers, editorial personnel, and the publisher when necessary for the editorial and publication process.

   Unpublished materials contained in submitted manuscripts must not be used for personal research, institutional benefit, or any other unauthorized purpose without the explicit written consent of the author.

4. Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

   Editors, reviewers, and authors must disclose any financial, institutional, collaborative, personal, or intellectual conflicts of interest that could influence editorial decisions, manuscript interpretation, or scholarly judgment. Individuals with conflicts of interest must recuse themselves from handling or reviewing the relevant manuscript.

5. Duties of the Managing Editor and Editors
   • Workflow Coordination: The Managing Editor ensures that manuscripts are tracked, screened, assigned, reviewed, revised, and prepared for production in a timely and documented manner.
   • Screening and Handling: Editors review submissions for relevance, completeness, ethical suitability, and basic scholarly quality before external review.
   • Communication and Documentation: The Managing Editor and Editors must maintain clear, professional, and accurate communication with authors and reviewers, and preserve proper workflow records.
   • Editorial Recommendation: Editors prepare balanced recommendations for the Editor-in-Chief based on reviewer reports and editorial assessment.
   • Confidential Oversight: The Managing Editor and Editors must safeguard confidentiality and avoid any actions that compromise the integrity of the review process.
6. Duties of Reviewers
   • Contribution to Editorial Decisions: Peer review assists editors in making editorial decisions and supports authors in improving the scholarly quality, clarity, and academic contribution of their manuscripts.
   • Promptness: Reviewers who feel unqualified to review a manuscript or unable to complete the review within the requested timeframe must promptly notify the editor and decline the review invitation.
   • Confidentiality: Manuscripts received for review are confidential documents and must not be shared, reproduced, discussed, or distributed without explicit editorial authorization.
   • Objectivity and Scholarly Conduct: Reviews must be conducted objectively, respectfully, and professionally. Personal criticism of authors is inappropriate. Reviewers should provide clear arguments, constructive feedback, and evidence-based recommendations.
   • Acknowledgement of Sources: Reviewers should identify relevant publications not cited by the authors and notify editors regarding significant similarity, overlap, plagiarism, fabricated references, or other ethical concerns.
   • Disclosure and Conflict of Interest: Reviewers must not use privileged information obtained during peer review for personal advantage and must decline review assignments where conflicts of interest exist.
7. Duties of Authors
   • Reporting Standards: Authors must present accurate, honest, and comprehensive accounts of their research. Interpretations, arguments, translations, historical claims, and conclusions must be supported by reliable evidence and scholarly reasoning.
   • Source Integrity and Citation Accuracy: Authors must accurately cite all primary and secondary sources used in the manuscript, including archival materials, manuscripts, interviews, historical documents, translations, visual materials, and digital resources. Fabrication or manipulation of references, quotations, archival identifiers, page numbers, or historical evidence constitutes serious misconduct.
   • Originality and Plagiarism: Authors must ensure that submitted manuscripts are original works. All forms of plagiarism, including unattributed quotation, improper paraphrasing, self-plagiarism, and unauthorized reuse of published material, are unethical and unacceptable.
   • Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication: Authors must not submit the same or substantially similar manuscripts to more than one journal simultaneously. Duplicate publication without proper acknowledgment and editorial approval is prohibited.
   • Acknowledgement of Sources and Contributions: Proper acknowledgment of the work and intellectual contributions of others is mandatory. Authors must cite publications, editions, translations, catalogues, databases, and scholarly works that significantly influenced the manuscript.
   • Authorship of the Manuscript: Authorship must be limited to individuals who have made substantial academic contributions to the conception, design, interpretation, analysis, writing, or revision of the manuscript. All co-authors must approve the final version prior to submission. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring authorship accuracy and approval.
   • Permissions and Copyright: Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted materials, including manuscript facsimiles, photographs, maps, illustrations, tables, and extended quotations when necessary.
   • Human Participants and Oral History: Research involving interviews, oral testimony, community engagement, or interaction with living individuals must respect privacy, dignity, informed consent, and ethical research standards applicable to the research context.
   • Cultural and Religious Sensitivity: Manuscripts involving sacred texts, religious traditions, local communities, indigenous heritage, or sensitive subjects must be presented responsibly, accurately, and respectfully.
   • Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Authors must disclose all financial support, sponsorship, institutional relationships, or other conflicts of interest that may influence the interpretation or presentation of the manuscript.
   • Correction of Errors: Authors who discover significant errors or inaccuracies in their published work must promptly notify the editor and cooperate fully in issuing corrections, corrigenda, clarifications, or retractions where necessary.
   • Availability of Supporting Materials: Authors should retain supporting materials, notes, interview records, archival references, permissions, and related documentation for reasonable editorial verification if requested by the Journal.