Screening for Plagiarism
Introduction
Ficco Public Health Journal is committed to upholding the highest ethical standards in academic publishing. Plagiarism in any form is considered a serious ethical violation, and the journal strictly enforces policies to prevent and address instances of plagiarism.
Definition of Plagiarism
Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:
- Copying text, ideas, figures, or data from another source without proper citation.
- Self-plagiarism (duplicate publication of the author's own work without significant modifications or proper citation).
- Submitting work that has been previously published in another journal or conference proceedings without disclosure.
Plagiarism Detection
- All submitted manuscripts undergo plagiarism screening using Turnitin or similar plagiarism detection software before the peer review process.
- The journal follows the acceptable similarity index threshold of 20%, excluding references, quotes, and commonly used phrases.
- Manuscripts with high similarity scores will be immediately returned to the author for revision or rejected outright.
Consequences of Plagiarism
If plagiarism is detected at any stage (before or after publication), the following actions may be taken:
-
Pre-publication:
- Authors will be asked to revise the manuscript and properly attribute sources.
- In cases of severe plagiarism, the manuscript will be rejected.
-
Post-publication:
- If plagiarism is discovered after publication, the article may be retracted.
- A retraction notice will be published in the journal stating the reason for retraction.
-
Authors found guilty of plagiarism may be banned from submitting to the journal in the future.
Author Responsibility
-
- Authors must ensure that all sources are properly cited and acknowledged.
- Authors should submit only original work that has not been published or is under review elsewhere.
- If using previously published content (e.g., figures, tables), authors must obtain permission and provide appropriate attribution.
