Plagiarism Policy

This policy applies to all submitted and published content, including original research articles, review articles, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, case reports, case series, editorials, short communications, letters, figures, tables, supplementary files, datasets, and other scholarly material.

Authors must appropriately acknowledge all ideas, words, data, methods, images, tables, figures, and other material obtained from published or unpublished sources.

• Copying text, ideas, data, images, tables, or figures without proper citation.
• Presenting another person’s work or interpretation as one’s own.
• Closely paraphrasing a source without acknowledgment.
• Using material from websites, theses, reports, conference papers, or unpublished sources without citation.
• Translating previously published material and presenting it as original work.
• Using citations that do not support the statements made in the manuscript.

Self-plagiarism occurs when authors reuse substantial portions of their own previously published work without proper citation, disclosure, or justification.

Authors must disclose related publications, preprints, conference abstracts, theses, dissertations, or manuscripts that contain overlapping material.

Submitted manuscripts may be checked using plagiarism-detection or similarity-detection software before peer review, during editorial assessment, or whenever a concern is raised.

The editorial team examines matched passages, references, source types, quoted material, methods, and the overall pattern of overlap.

The journal does not make decisions solely on the basis of a single similarity percentage.

Similarity may arise from references, standard scientific terminology, institutional names, correctly quoted material, commonly used methodological descriptions, and previously deposited versions of a manuscript.

The final assessment is based on the nature, location, extent, and significance of the overlapping content.

When limited or unintentional overlap is identified, authors may be asked to:

• Rewrite the affected text.
• Add missing citations.
• Use quotation marks where appropriate.
• Remove unnecessary duplicated content.
• Provide clarification or supporting source material.

If substantial, deliberate, or misleading plagiarism is identified, the journal may:

• Reject the manuscript before peer review.
• Reject the manuscript after editorial or peer-review assessment.
• Request an explanation from all listed authors.
• Notify the authors’ institution, ethics committee, funder, or another journal.
• Restrict future submissions in cases of repeated or deliberate misconduct.

Duplicate or redundant publication occurs when substantially the same work is submitted to or published in more than one journal without appropriate disclosure or permission.

Authors must not submit the same manuscript to multiple journals at the same time.

Figures, tables, photographs, illustrations, and other visual materials obtained from another source must be properly cited. Authors must obtain copyright permission whenever required.

Reusing visual material without acknowledgment may be treated as plagiarism or copyright infringement.

Concerns raised after publication will be investigated fairly and confidentially. Authors may be asked to provide an explanation, original files, source documents, raw data, or other relevant records.

Depending on the findings, the journal may publish a correction, expression of concern, retraction, or another appropriate editorial notice.

• Submitting original work.
• Providing accurate and complete citations.
• Disclosing related or overlapping publications.
• Obtaining permission for copyrighted material.
• Reviewing the manuscript for plagiarism before submission.
• Ensuring that all co-authors approve the final manuscript.

Authors who believe that a plagiarism-related decision was based on an error may submit a reasoned appeal with supporting evidence to the editorial office.

Appeals will be reviewed independently of the original assessment whenever practicable.