Focus and Scope

Majalah Obat Tradisional aims to stimulate the discovery and development of herbal and traditional medicine. We accept articles on the cultivation and extraction of raw materials, the analysis of these materials’ phytochemical/pharmacological effects or toxicity, or the potential applications of natural extracts, fractions, or compounds in the formulation of traditional medicine.

Articles dealing with biotechnology are normally not accepted, unless their focal point is traditional medicine. Majalah Obat Tradisional does not cover topics related to the exploration of practical herbal medicine, manual mound healing methods, and other unconventional healthcare practices like acupuncture, homeopathy, and naturopathy.

Research articles, case studies, and short communications are accepted.

Section Policies

Articles

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Peer Review Process

The primary review system in Majalah Obat Tradisional is double-blind peer review. With this review system, the identities of both the Authors and the Reviewers will be concealed from each other. Manuscripts submitted to Majalah Obat Tradisional will undergo significant process in order to ensure that it carries novelty and quality that appeal to the journal’s readership.

There are at least five stages of review process that Majalah Obat Tradisional implements:

• Initial Screening. Our Editorial Board members will asses the newly submitted manuscript for its conformity with the requirement, the manuscript’s feasibility with our Focus and Scope, as well as the quality of the content in general. A manuscript that does not pass the initial screening will be declined and returned to the Author promptly.

• Peer-review. A manuscript that passes the initial screening process will be eligible to be sent to our Reviewers. In this stage, our Editorial Assistant will ensure all the individual or private information about the Authors, including Authors’ affiliation and Acknowledgement section, are removed from the submitted file. A single manuscript will be reviewed by two reviewers. The Editorial Assistant will be responsible in combining the two review reports. The Editorial Board members will make a decision in case the two reports contradict each other. However, it is also possible to have only one Reviewer return the report to the Editorial Board. The average review process of each article may take nine to twelve months.

• First decision. A decision letter will be sent to the Author based on the reports from the Reviewers and the recommendation from the Editorial Board members. The decision can be: Declined (rejected), Revision Required (either major or minor), Accept Submission as is, or Resubmit for Review.

• Revision Stage.

• Authors receiving the Revision Required decision are requested to revise their manuscript as recommended by our Reviewers within fourteen days. Authors will also be required to upload the Statement of Originality, their responses to article reviews, proof of plagiarism testing, and evidence of grammar checks. A revised manuscript will still be assessed for its adequacy, as well as whether it has sufficiently corresponded with the Reviewers’ suggestion, before it is given the final decision by the Editor in Chief. We kindly request that you refrain from requesting a Letter of Acceptance at this time, as our standard procedure involves thorough proofreading before final acceptance for publication.
• Authors receiving the Resubmit for Review decision are requested to revise their manuscript in accordance with the recommendations provided by our Reviewers within fourteen days. The revised manuscript will then undergo another round of peer-review, restarting from the second stage of our peer-review process. This may extend the overall processing time.

• Completion Check and Copy Editing. The content will be carefully checked to confirm that all comments and suggestions from the editors and reviewers have been fully addressed and properly integrated into the manuscript. The revised manuscript will also be checked for consistency in style, formatting, and adherence to journal guidelines.

• Final decision. The final decision of the manuscript is either accepted or declined. At this stage, a revised manuscript that is deemed inadequate or has not seemed to have significant improvement will be declined. A manuscript that is accepted and considered to be published in Majalah Obat Tradisional will receive electronic Letter of Conditional Acceptance via e-mail for Article Publication Charge (APC). Manuscripts that have fulfilled all conditions for publication in Majalah Obat Tradisional will receive Letter of Acceptance. Please be informed that the Letter of Acceptance in PDF format is issued upon request.

Publication Frequency

This is the official yearly schedule for the electronic or PDF release of Majalah Obat Tradisional. The In-Press edition will be made online as soon as it is available.  

1. Issue 1 : April 30
2. Issue 2 : August 31
3. Issue 3 : December 31

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Accessing articles from this journal do not require payment fees.

Articles are published under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. The author(s) and copyright holder (Majalah Obat Tradisional (Traditional Medicine Journal) grant all users a free, worldwide, and perpetual right of access to share, copy, and redistribute the work publicly, given appropriate credits. 

Users are allowed use the articles published in this journal for personal use but not for commercial purposes.

Archiving

This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration.

Plagiarism Policy

Manuscripts submitted to Majalah Obat Tradisional (Traditional Medicine Journal) will be screened for plagiarism using Turnitin anti-plagiarsm software. Majalah Obat Tradisional will immediately reject manuscripts that have strong indication on performing plagiarism. Authors that are proven to perform plagiarism will be banned from submitting manuscripts to Majalah Obat Tradisional (Traditional Medicine Journal). Please refer to our Author Guideline and Publication Ethics for our submission requirements. 

Publication Ethics

Majalah Obat Tradisional, a scientific periodical journal on herbal and traditional medicine, is a communication media among traditional medicine researchers including academicians, clinicians, as well as many others who pay attention on traditional medicines. Peer Reviewers are intended to review the manuscripts to make sure the consistency of periodical contents, and they are independently responsible to the quality of the journal content. Issuance of decisions are purely determined by the quality of the manuscript and are not influenced by advertising or sponsorship. In addition, double-blind peer review method is applied to the review process so that subjectivity and bias can be minimized.

Our ethics statement is based on COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

Duties fo Author

• Author should contribute to the concept, design, data collection, analysis, the writing of the study, as well as the content of the manuscript.
• Author must declare that the study reported in the journal is based on their own work and that Majalah Obat Tradisional will have the copyright of the work published.
• Author must declare that the submitted manuscript is original, has not considered nor previously been published elsewhere.
• Author must not have conflict of interest regarding the decision of whom are credited as corresponding author, contributors, or ones who are being acknowledged.
• Any other conflict of interest must be clearly stated.
• Author must acknowledge people, institutions, as well as sources of funding that have given significant contribution to the study.
• Author must provide information on Ethical Statements or Ethical Clearance including competing interest, informed consent, and human and animal rights.
• Author must guarantee that the manuscript should not be plagiarized.
• Author must communicate with Editor upon review process and decision.

Duties for Editor

• Editor has the authorization to accept or reject a paper for publication based on the requirement of the journal and the decision should not be interfered by any other parties.
• Editors must be able to evaluate a manuscript based on its scientific content regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion and belief, ethnicity, nationality, or political philosophy.
• Editors must treat the submitted papers confidentially and encourage peer review processing to minimize misconduct or conflict of interest, as well as inform the Author if ethical breach has occurred.
• In case of having a conflict of interest for reasons of competition, collaboration, or other relationship with the author, institution, or company involved in publishing, the editor is not permitted to evaluate the related texts. Thus, another Editorial Board member should be involved in determining the issuance of the manuscript.
• Editor should communicate with Author for any additional information needed.
• Editor should function as communicator between Authors and Peer Reviewers during the peer-review process.
• If the editors or other party encounters a fatal error and inaccuracies in the published manuscript, the editor should immediately notify the author and request his/her correction or retraction. The editor should publish the correction.
• Editor is not allowed to use the unpublished manuscript material for personal use.
• The information and ideas contained in the text which are in the double-blind peer-review process is confidential and will not be distributed or used for personal benefit.
• Editor must ensure that all parties involved in the review process and the publication of the manuscript declare a conflict of interest in the publication of a manuscript, as well as make corrections if a conflict of interest is revealed after the manuscript is published. If necessary, the editor can take appropriate action, such as publishing editorial statements or retraction of the manuscript.

Duties for Reviewer

• Peer Reviewers provide recommendations to assist authors to improve the quality of submitted manuscripts and the editors determine the editorial policy, in accordance with their respective expertise.
• Peer Reviewers should inform the editor about the willingness to review the submitted manuscripts; otherwise, peer reviewers must notify the editor if unable to review the manuscripts.
• The reviewed manuscript is a confidential document. Communication with other parties without the Author's permission is prohibited.
• Peer Reviewers must be firm on the principle of objectivity and avoiding personal criticism against the Author of the manuscript during the review process. All comments must be accompanied by clear and supportive suggestions.
• Peer Reviewers are recommended to clarify all ambiguous information from the Authors related to the research with the literature, or relevant case studies which have not been cited, having a substantial similarity, or overlap with the manuscripts reviewed.
• Peer reviewers are not allowed to use unpublished manuscript material for personal use without the prior written consent of the Author, under any circumstances.
• The information and ideas contained in the reviewed manuscript is confidential and should not be distributed or used for personal gain.
• If having a conflict of interest for reasons of competition, collaboration, or other relationship with the author, institution, or company involved in publishing, Peer Reviewers are not permitted to evaluate the related manuscript.

Identification of and Dealing with Allegations of Research Misconduct

The Publisher (Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Gadjah Mada) and the Editor in Chief of Majalah Obat Tradisional will take action to identify and prevent misconduct in the research articles submitted and published in Majalah Obat Tradisional.

According to the definition of misconduct by the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), misconduct does not include unintentional errors. The overview of most common form of misconduct is as listed below:

• Falsification of Data
• Plagiarism
• Improperties of Authorship
• Misappropriation of the ideas of others
• Violation of generally accepted research practices
• Material failure to comply with legislative and regulatory requirements affecting research
• Inappropriate behavior in relation to misconduct

An allegation of misconduct may appear from numerous sources, including Editors, Peer-Reviewers, Authors, or disaffected co-Authors. If a concern that an article might have constituted misconduct arises, it should be alerted immediately. The Editorial Assistant will discuss the case with the Editorial Board members and the publisher (the Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Gadjah Mada) before issuing a penalty and notifying the involved parties. Editors are obliged to conceal the source of the allegations.

In dealing with allegations of misconduct, Majalah Obat Tradisional will follow the COPE’s guidelines (http://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines).

Author Fees

Article Publication Charge (APC): 3,250,000 (IDR)

If the manuscript is accepted for publication in Majalah Obat Tradisional (Traditional Medicine Journal), authors will be asked to pay Article Publication Charge (APC) to cover publication costs.

Reduction or Waiver

Corresponding Authors whose primary affiliations are from countries that are considered lower middle and low income by the World Bank can ask for Article Publication Charge (APC) reduction. Please refer to the World Bank Data at this link https://data.worldbank.org/ to check if your country is eligible for an appeal.

For further information, contact the Editorial Assistant at mot.farmasi@ugm.ac.id.

Revenue Sources

The operational of Majalah Obat Tradisional (Traditional Medicine Journal) is fully funded by the Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Gadjah Mada. We apply IDR 3,250,000 of author publication charges upon acceptance. We do not offer subscription services. However, we accommodate requests for a printed copy, and each exemplar is priced at IDR 175.000. We do not accept advertisement in our website. This journal is for scientific publication purposes only and not for commercial use. 

Ownership and Management

The founder and owner of Majalah Obat Tradisional (Trad. Med. J) are the Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. The main purpose of Majalah Obat Tradisional is to promote advances in the discovery and development of herbal and traditional medicine. Majalah Obat Tradisional is an open-access journal and users are free to download, copy, and redistribute the published articles as long as the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License is respected.

Majalah Obat Tradisional Management:

• Editor in Chief: Puji Astuti – puji_astuti@ugm.ac.id
• Editorial Assistant: Pudyastuti Kusumaningrum – pudyastuti.k@ugm.ac.id

Majalah Obat Tradisional Business Address:

Publication Unit (Unit IX)

Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Gadjah Mada Jalan Sekip Utara, Senolowo, Sinduadi, Kec. Mlati, Kabupaten Sleman, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta 55281

Phone: (0274) 543120

Email: mot.farmasi@ugm.ac.id

Generative AI Policy

Core Principles
The use of Generative AI (Gen AI) tools (e.g., Large Language Models like ChatGPT, Claude, or image generators like DALL-E and Midjourney) in the creation of scholarly and research materials must adhere to the following principles:

• Accountability: The human author(s) bear full and sole responsibility for the accuracy, originality, validity, integrity, and ethical compliance of all submitted content, including any material generated, assisted, or verified using Gen AI tools.
• Transparency: Any use of Gen AI tools in the creation of a manuscript, figures, or supporting data must be explicitly disclosed and described in detail.
• Integrity: AI tools must not be used to violate research integrity, including fabricating data, manipulating images, or committing plagiarism through undisclosed content generation.

Authorship and Attribution
Generative AI tools cannot be listed as an author or co-author.

Authorship is Human: Authorship carries legal and ethical responsibilities (e.g., approving the final submission, managing copyright, and being accountable for the work's integrity) that cannot be assumed by a non-human entity.

Citation vs. Authorship: While an AI tool may generate text or ideas, it does not meet the criteria for authorship. Any output used must be attributed and disclosed (see Section 3), but the AI model should not appear in the author list.

Guidelines for Authors

A. Disclosure and Citation

Authors are required to disclose all uses of Gen AI tools beyond basic grammar and spelling checks.

Required Disclosure: Include a dedicated statement under the Acknowledgments section, detailing:

The name of the specific AI tool and version used (e.g., "ChatGPT-4, March 2025 version").

The purpose and extent of its use (e.g., "used for refining section headings," "used for summarizing background literature," or "used for improving language clarity").

A statement confirming the human author's oversight and verification of the output.

Plagiarism: Directly incorporating text generated by an AI tool without disclosure and proper attribution constitutes plagiarism and academic misconduct. AI-generated text should be treated like content from any other source, and substantial use requires clear citation and transparency.

B. Use of AI in Content Creation

C. Data and Confidentiality

Authors must not input confidential, sensitive, or unpublished material (e.g., raw, proprietary data; unsubmitted manuscript content) into Gen AI tools unless the tool's terms explicitly guarantee that the data will not be retained, stored, or used for model training. Authors are responsible for protecting the confidentiality and intellectual property of their work.

Guidelines for Peer Reviewers and Editors

The peer review process requires absolute confidentiality.

Confidentiality Breach: Reviewers and Editors must not upload submitted manuscripts, parts of manuscripts, or peer review reports into any Gen AI tool. Doing so breaches the confidentiality of the submission and may infringe upon the authors' proprietary rights and data privacy.

Human Judgement: Reviewers and Editors must rely solely on their professional, human expertise and critical thinking to evaluate a manuscript's quality, rigor, and validity. Gen AI tools must not be used to generate summary critiques or determine an editorial decision.

Reporting: Reviewers and Editors should report any suspected violation of this Gen AI policy to the publisher or editorial office for investigation.