Reviewer Guidelines

1. Overview and Ethical Responsibilities

Peer reviewers play a crucial role in maintaining the quality, integrity, and scientific rigor of scholarly publishing in psychology. Reviewers invited by INSIGHT: Jurnal Pemikiran dan Penelitian Psikologi are expected to uphold the principles of fairness, confidentiality, promptness, and professional integrity throughout the evaluation process.

2. Pre-Evaluation Considerations (Upon Receiving an Invitation)

Before accepting an invitation to review a manuscript, reviewers must consider the following criteria:

  1. Domain Expertise: Reviewers should only accept invitations to evaluate manuscripts for which they possess adequate subject-matter expertise to provide a proper, high-quality assessment.

    (Source: COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers & COPE What to Consider When Asked to Peer Review a Manuscript)

  2. Competing Conflicts of Interest: Reviewers must decline the invitation immediately if they have any financial, personal, academic, or collaborative conflicts of interest that could compromise their objectivity.

    (Source: COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers)

  3. Availability and Timeliness: Reviewers must decline the review request if they cannot commit to completing the evaluation within the stipulated timeframe (typically 2–4 weeks).

    (Source: COPE What to Consider When Asked to Peer Review a Manuscript)

3. Ethical Conduct During the Review Process

Reviewers appointed by INSIGHT: Jurnal Pemikiran dan Penelitian Psikologi must adhere strictly to the following ethical guidelines during their evaluation:

  1. Strict Confidentiality: Reviewers must treat all manuscript details and supplementary materials as strictly confidential, refrain from sharing the manuscript with third parties, and not use unpublished data or ideas for their own research without explicit written permission.

    (Source: COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers)

  2. Objectivity and Constructive Feedback: Reports should be written objectively, constructively, and respectfully, avoiding personal, hostile, or derogatory remarks.

    (Source: COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers)

  3. Impartiality Regarding Authorship: Because INSIGHT operates under a double-blind peer review system, reviewers should refrain from attempting to uncover author identities and must notify the Editor immediately if they inadvertently identify the author.

    (Source: COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers)

  4. Citation Integrity: Reviewers must not request authors to include citations to the reviewer’s own publications unless there is a genuine, strong scientific justification.

    (Source: COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers)

4. Specific Evaluation Criteria for Psychology Manuscripts

Reviewers should structure their evaluation around key scientific standards in psychological research:

  • Theoretical Rationale & Problem Statement: Does the manuscript address a clear, relevant, and novel question within psychological science?

  • Methodological Rigor: Are the research design, participant demographics, sampling strategies, and psychometric instruments (validity and reliability) sound and clearly detailed?

  • Ethical Considerations: Has the study received Institutional Review Board (IRB) / Ethics Committee approval, and were proper human participant consent procedures followed?

  • Data Analysis & Results: Are statistical analyses appropriate, correctly reported (e.g., effect sizes, confidence intervals, test values), and properly supported by tables and figures?

  • Discussion & Interpretation: Are conclusions logically derived from the findings, grounded in existing psychological literature, and accompanied by study limitations and practical implications?

5. Identifying Ethical Misconduct

If a reviewer suspects potential publication misconduct during the review process, they must notify the Editor-in-Chief confidentially without conducting an independent private investigation:

6. Official COPE Resources and References

The reviewer guidelines implemented by INSIGHT: Jurnal Pemikiran dan Penelitian Psikologi are derived directly from official Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) documents: