About the Journal

 

Focus and Scope

Journal of Community Service is a multidisciplinary scientific journal published by the Institute for Research and Community Service, State Islamic Institute (IAIN) Bone. The journal provides a platform for disseminating scholarly works on community engagement initiatives across diverse disciplines, published in both English and Indonesian.

The journal’s focus and scope include, but are not limited to: Collaborative Governance, Education, Knowledge Transfer for Community Development, Actualization of Local Wisdom and Culture, Sustainable Livelihood, Sociology, Globalization and Social Transformation, Creative Economy, Competency and Entrepreneurship Development, People-Based Economic Development, Law, Social Engineering, Conflict Management, and Digital Information Literacy.

Journal of Community Service is issued biannually (June and December). Manuscripts must strictly adhere to the submission guidelines; any submission that fails to comply with the prescribed format will be rejected at the editorial stage.

All manuscripts undergo an initial Desk Review and preliminary evaluation by the Editorial Board, followed by a double-blind peer review process conducted by independent reviewers. Detailed policies regarding the review process are available in the submission guidelines.

Peer Review Policy

  1. Initial Screening

Every manuscript submitted to the Journal of Community Service undergoes an initial screening by the editorial team. This process includes an evaluation of the manuscript’s relevance to the journal’s focus and scope, similarity index, and compliance with the journal’s formatting/template requirements.

Manuscripts that do not meet these criteria will be promptly returned to the authors for revision before proceeding to the next stage. This screening process is conducted manually by the editorial team.

  1. Peer Review Process

Manuscripts that pass the initial screening are assigned to at least two reviewers for assessment under a single-blind peer review policy, in which the reviewers’ identities remain confidential to the authors.

Reviewers evaluate the manuscripts based on novelty, scholarly contribution, relevance, methodology, and quality of presentation. All reviewer comments and recommendations are communicated to the corresponding author via the registered email address.
The editorial team is committed to providing authors with the review results within 30 days of manuscript submission.

  1. Editorial Decision

The final decision on the acceptance or rejection of a manuscript rests entirely with the Editor-in-Chief, based on the collective evaluation of the editorial board and the reviewers’ recommendations. Once a decision has been made, the corresponding author will be promptly notified of the final outcome via official email communication.

Publication Information

Publication Frequency

The Journal of Community Service is published biannually, with issues released in June and December each year.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to all its content, based on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
All articles are published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits non-commercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Processing Charges (APC)

Currently, the Journal of Community Service does not charge any Article Processing Charges (APCs) or submission fees. All accepted articles are published free of charge.

Archiving Policy

This journal implements a digital archiving policy to ensure long-term preservation of all published content. Articles are archived in:

  • The journal’s official repository.
  • National and international digital libraries.
  • Indexing databases to ensure accessibility and preservation.

The journal also participates in LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) and CLOCKSS initiatives to guarantee permanent and secure archiving of published content.

Publication Ethics

For Authors

  • Authors must ensure originality and proper citation of sources.
  • All listed authors must have significantly contributed to the research.
  • Manuscripts must not be under review or published elsewhere.
  • Any potential conflict of interest must be disclosed.

For Editors

  • Editors are responsible for fair and impartial decisions based on academic merit.
  • Editors must maintain confidentiality of submitted manuscripts.
  • Editors should avoid handling manuscripts where conflicts of interest exist.

For Reviewers

  • Reviewers must provide objective, constructive, and timely feedback.
  • Reviewers must respect the confidentiality of the review process.
  • Reviewers should disclose any conflict of interest and decline reviews where bias may occur.

Plagiarism Policy

All submissions are checked for plagiarism using standard detection tools. Articles with high similarity will be rejected or returned for revision.

Ethical Guidelines for Research Involving Human Subjects

The Journal of Community Service requires that all research involving human participants adhere to ethical standards. Authors must ensure that:

  1. Informed Consent: Participants provided informed consent before involvement in the research.
  2. Ethical Approval: Studies involving human subjects have received approval from a recognized ethics committee or institutional review board (IRB), and the approval number should be stated in the manuscript.
  3. Privacy and Confidentiality: Personal data of participants must remain confidential, and identifiable information should not be disclosed.
  4. Compliance with International Standards: Research complies with the Declaration of Helsinki and other relevant ethical guidelines.

Retraction and Correction Policy

The Journal of Community Service follows best practices for maintaining the integrity of academic records:

  • Retraction: Articles may be retracted if there is evidence of plagiarism, data fabrication, ethical violations, or other serious breaches of academic integrity.
  • Correction: Minor errors that do not affect the overall findings may be corrected through errata or corrigenda.
  • Withdrawal: Authors may request withdrawal before publication with a valid reason, subject to editor approval.

All retraction notices will be published with clear explanations and linked to the original article.

Reviewer Guidelines

To ensure high-quality and constructive peer review, reviewers for the Journal of Community Service are expected to:

  1. Maintain Confidentiality: All manuscripts and associated data are strictly confidential.
  2. Provide Constructive Feedback: Reviews should be objective, respectful, and aimed at improving the quality of the manuscript.
  3. Assess Key Aspects: Evaluate the manuscript for originality, methodological rigor, clarity, and contribution to the field.
  4. Disclose Conflicts of Interest: Reviewers must declare any potential conflicts of interest and recuse themselves where necessary.
  5. Timely Response: Submit reviews within the agreed timeframe (typically within 2–4 weeks).

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