Plagiarism Screening

  1. Definition: Plagiarism is defined as presenting someone else's ideas, work, or words as one's own without proper acknowledgment or citation.
  2. Screening Tool: All submitted manuscripts to Journal of Sustainable Infrastructure will be screened for potential plagiarism using the Turnitin software.
  3. Acceptable Limit: The acceptable similarity index for any submitted article is below 25%. Manuscripts that exceed this threshold will either be rejected or sent back to authors for revision.
  4. Areas of Concern: While Turnitin checks the entire document, areas of particular concern include the introduction, methods, results, and discussion sections. Common knowledge, references, article title, repeated technical terms, and author names are usually excluded from this percentage.
  5. Action Against Plagiarism: Authors found guilty of plagiarism, even post-publication, may face actions including:
    • Rejection of the manuscript.
    • Prohibition from submitting to the journal for a specified period.
    • Notification to the author's affiliated institution or funding bodies.
  6. Self-Plagiarism: Authors are also advised to avoid 'self-plagiarism' or 'text recycling'. This involves republishing substantial parts of their own previously published work without proper citation.
  7. Recommendation: To ensure their manuscript remains within the acceptable similarity limit, authors are encouraged to:
    • Properly cite and quote any content that is directly taken from another source.
    • Paraphrase effectively, ensuring that even when using your own words to describe someone else's ideas, you give proper credit.
    • Cross-check their work against previous publications to avoid unintended self-plagiarism.
  8. Final Decision: The editorial board holds the final decision on all matters related to plagiarism. The board will consider the nature and extent of the plagiarism in determining the appropriate action.