The Way: Jurnal Teologi dan Kependidikan editorial board recognises that plagiarism is not acceptable and therefore establishes the following policy stating specific actions (penalties) upon identification of plagiarism/similarities in articles submitted for publication in The Way: Jurnal Teologi dan Kependidikan will use Turnitin's originality checking software as the tool in detecting similarities of texts in article manuscripts and the final version of articles ready for publication. A maximum of 20% of similarities is allowed for the submitted papers. Should we find more than 20% of the similarity index, the article will be returned to the author for correction and resubmission.

Level of Plagiarism

Minor: A short section of another article is plagiarised without any significant data or idea taken from the other paper
Action: A warning is given to the authors and a request to change the text and properly cite the original article is made

Intermediate: A significant portion of a paper is plagiarised without proper citation to the original paper
Action: The submitted article is rejected and the authors are forbidden to submit further articles for one year

Severe: A significant portion of a paper is plagiarised that involves reproducing original results or ideas presented in another publication
Action: The paper is rejected and the authors are forbidden to submit further articles for five years.

It is understood that all authors are responsible for the content of their submitted paper as they all read and understand Copyright Notice. If a penalty is imposed for plagiarism, all authors will be subject to the same penalty.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

The Way: Jurnal Teologi dan Kependidikan, published by Sekolah Tinggi Teologi Bethel The Way, Jakarta, is committed to maintaining academic integrity, research originality, transparency, accountability, and ethical standards in scholarly publishing. In response to the increasing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies in academic research and writing, the journal establishes the following policy to regulate the responsible use of AI by authors, editors, and reviewers.

This policy applies to all manuscripts submitted to The Way: Jurnal Teologi dan Kependidikan and is intended to safeguard the integrity, confidentiality, and credibility of the scholarly publication process, particularly in the fields of theology and education.

1. AI Policy for Authors

Authors may use AI-assisted tools, including generative AI technologies, to support limited technical aspects of manuscript preparation, provided that their use complies with academic integrity and ethical publishing standards.

The following provisions apply:

1. Disclosure of AI Use. Authors must transparently disclose any use of generative AI tools that materially contributes to manuscript preparation, including drafting assistance, substantive rewriting, translation, data processing, or analytical support. The disclosure must identify the AI tool used, its purpose, and the extent of its involvement.

2. Author Responsibility. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, validity, and integrity of all manuscript content, including any material generated or modified with AI assistance.

3. Authorship Restrictions. AI tools, including ChatGPT and other generative AI systems, cannot be listed as authors or co-authors because they cannot assume responsibility, provide ethical approval, or meet scholarly authorship requirements.

4. Academic Integrity. AI-generated content must not be used to fabricate or falsify research data, citations, references, theological interpretations, research findings, or other scholarly information.

5. Verification of Sources. Authors must independently verify all references, quotations, biblical citations, theological sources, factual statements, and research findings suggested or generated by AI tools.

6. Confidentiality and Research Ethics. Authors must not upload confidential research data, personal information, unpublished materials belonging to third parties, or sensitive participant information to AI systems without appropriate authorization and safeguards.

7. Permitted Technical Assistance. Routine uses of AI-assisted tools for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and language correction that do not substantially alter the intellectual content of a manuscript generally do not require disclosure.

8. Human Intellectual Contribution. The development of research questions, theoretical arguments, theological interpretations, methodological decisions, critical analysis, and conclusions must remain under the intellectual control and responsibility of human authors.

Authors who use generative AI must include an AI Use Declaration in their manuscript before the reference list.

Example of an AI Use Declaration:

"During the preparation of this manuscript, the author(s) used [name of AI tool] for [specific purpose]. The author(s) reviewed, verified, and revised the relevant content and take full responsibility for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of the published work."

If no generative AI was used in a manner requiring disclosure, authors may state:

"The author(s) declare that no generative AI tools were used in the preparation of this manuscript."

2. AI Policy for Editors

Editors of The Way: Jurnal Teologi dan Kependidikan are responsible for ensuring a fair, independent, confidential, and transparent editorial process.

The following provisions apply:

1. Confidentiality of Manuscripts. Editors must not upload submitted manuscripts, unpublished research data, reviewer reports, or confidential editorial correspondence to public or third-party generative AI systems without appropriate authorization and safeguards.

2. Editorial Decision-Making. AI tools must not independently determine manuscript acceptance, rejection, revision requirements, or publication eligibility. All editorial decisions must be made by authorized human editors based on scholarly assessment and peer-review recommendations.

3. Limited Administrative Assistance. Editors may use approved AI-assisted tools for limited administrative or technical activities, such as improving the language of non-confidential communications, provided that confidentiality and data protection requirements are maintained.

4. Integrity Screening. AI-assisted tools may support plagiarism screening, reference verification, and other integrity checks. However, their outputs must be independently evaluated by human editors and must not serve as the sole basis for allegations of misconduct or editorial decisions.

5. Transparency and Accountability. Editors remain accountable for all editorial actions and must ensure that AI assistance does not introduce bias, compromise confidentiality, or undermine the journal's double-blind peer-review process.

3. AI Policy for Reviewers

The Way: Jurnal Teologi dan Kependidikan implements a double-blind peer-review process to maintain impartiality, confidentiality, and academic integrity.

To protect the confidentiality and quality of the review process, the journal establishes the following requirements:

1. Prohibition of Generative AI in Peer Review. Reviewers are prohibited from using generative AI tools to evaluate submitted manuscripts, generate peer-review reports, formulate substantive review comments, or recommend editorial decisions.

2. Manuscript Confidentiality. Reviewers must not upload, copy, or disclose submitted manuscripts, manuscript excerpts, unpublished research findings, or other confidential review materials to generative AI platforms.

3. Independent Scholarly Evaluation. All assessments of research quality, methodological rigor, originality, theological arguments