Conflict of Interest

Neutrality, meaning freedom from conflicts of interest in the management of publications, is a core ethical value of Padjadjaran Law Review (PLR), as set out in its Publication Ethics. This policy applies to authors, reviewers, and editors. It follows the guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and is intended to keep PLR's review and editorial decisions fair, transparent, and independent.

1. What Is a Conflict of Interest

A conflict of interest exists when a financial, institutional, professional, personal, or other interest could influence, or could reasonably appear to influence, a person's judgment in writing, reviewing, or deciding on a manuscript. Having a conflict of interest is not misconduct in itself. Failing to disclose one is.

Relevant interests include financial interests (such as funding, honoraria, or consultancy fees); professional involvement (such as acting as counsel, adviser, expert, or party in a matter discussed in the article, or taking part in drafting a law the article examines); institutional or personal ties to affected organisations or persons; and strong public or advocacy commitments on the issue addressed.

2. Authors
Authors must disclose all potential conflicts of interest in a Conflict of Interest Statement placed at the end of the manuscript, before the References.
Authors must state all sources of research funding, and the role of the funder (if any) in the research and writing, in a Funding Statement.
If there is no conflict, the manuscript must still include a statement saying so.
Disclosure is made at submission. The corresponding author submits it on behalf of all authors, and each author remains responsible for its accuracy.
An author who becomes aware of a conflict after submission or publication must inform the editors without delay.
Authors connected to PLR

PLR is managed by students of the Faculty of Law, Universitas Padjadjaran, under the Padjadjaran Law Research and Debate Society (PLEADS). Manuscripts from members of the editorial team, PLEADS members, or persons with a close working or supervisory relationship with the editorial team must declare that relationship. They follow the same review process as all other manuscripts, with the safeguards in Section 4.

3. Reviewers

A reviewer must decline the invitation, or inform the editors immediately, if the reviewer:

1) has a close professional, personal, or financial relationship with any author;
has co-authored with, supervised, or been supervised by any author within the past three years;
2) works in the same department or research unit as any author;
has a direct interest in the case, dispute, or regulation discussed in the manuscript; or
3) cannot assess the manuscript objectively for any other reason, including bias based on gender, ethnicity, religion, race, or class identity.

Reviewers must keep manuscripts confidential and must not use unpublished material for personal gain or for the benefit of others.

4. Editors
An editor must not handle a manuscript in which the editor has a conflict of interest. The Editor-in-Chief assigns it to an editor without a conflict, and if the Editor-in-Chief is affected, another member of the editorial board takes over.
Manuscripts from the editorial team: the editor concerned is excluded from every stage of handling the manuscript and has no access to the identity of its reviewers or to the editorial decision.
Manuscripts from the Faculty of Law, Universitas Padjadjaran, as the publisher: wherever possible, they are handled by editors with no working or supervisory relationship to the author and reviewed by reviewers from outside the Faculty.
Editorial decisions rest solely on the quality, originality, and relevance of the manuscript. They must not be influenced by the author's affiliation, nationality, gender, ethnicity, religion, race, class identity, political views, or any commercial consideration.
Editors must keep manuscripts confidential during the editorial process, except for academic or scientific purposes, and must not misuse them for personal gain.
Editors must not select reviewers whose conflicts of interest are known to them.

5. Handling Disclosed Conflicts

When a conflict is disclosed, the editors assess whether and how it affects the handling of the manuscript. Depending on the circumstances, they may proceed as usual, assign different editors or reviewers, ask the author for clarification, or decline the manuscript if the conflict cannot be managed. Where appropriate, the conflict is stated in the published article.

6. Undisclosed Conflicts

If an undisclosed conflict is discovered during review or after publication, the editors will investigate in accordance with PLR's Publication Ethics. Depending on the seriousness of the case, the outcome may be a request that the author add a statement, a published correction, or, where the conflict undermines the validity of the work, retraction of the article. The authors' institutions may be notified.