Plagiarism Policy, IJMJ

International Journal of Medical Justice (IJMJ)
International, An Open Access, Peer and Expert Reviewed Journal

1. Introduction

IJMJ maintains the highest standards of publication ethics and integrity. Plagiarism in any form is a serious academic misconduct and is strictly prohibited. All submissions to IJMJ must be original, unpublished, and not under consideration elsewhere. Authors are responsible for ensuring the integrity of their work, and any detected or suspected plagiarism may result in serious consequences including rejection, retraction, and reporting to relevant authorities.

2. Definition of Plagiarism

Plagiarism includes but is not limited to:

·         Verbatim copying of another's work without acknowledgment.

·         Paraphrasing substantial parts of another’s work without proper attribution.

·         Improper citation or failure to cite original sources.

·         Self-plagiarism, where an author reuses their own previously published content without disclosure or citation.

·         Image or data plagiarism, including use of figures, tables, or data from other works without permission or credit.

As per UGC and COPE guidelines, any similarity above 10% (excluding references, quotes, and commonly used phrases) is considered potentially problematic and warrants scrutiny.

3. Plagiarism Detection Process

All manuscripts submitted to IJMJ are subjected to plagiarism screening using professional plagiarism detection software (e.g., Turnitin, iThenticate, or other institutional tools) before they enter the peer review process.

Initial screening is done by the editorial team:

·         Manuscripts with similarity index > 25% are outright rejected or sent back to the authors for revision.

·         Manuscripts with similarity between 10–25% may be evaluated for the nature and context of the matches and sent back for modification if needed.

·         Manuscripts with similarity ≤ 10% proceed to the peer review stage.

4. Author Responsibilities

·         Authors must submit a declaration of originality and that the manuscript is free from plagiarism at the time of submission.

·         If using previously published material (including figures, data, or text), appropriate permissions must be obtained and source credited.

·         Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously (duplicate submission).

·         Proper referencing of all sources is mandatory, and all references should follow IJMJ’s referencing style (Vancouver).

5. Actions Against Plagiarism

If plagiarism is detected before publication, the manuscript will be:

·         Rejected, and the corresponding author will be informed.

·         The incident will be recorded, and the author’s institution may be notified.

If plagiarism is discovered after publication, IJMJ will:

·         Publish a retraction or correction notice, as appropriate.

·         Inform indexing agencies, the author's institution, and relevant bodies.

·         Debar the author(s) from future submission to IJMJ for a specified period.

6. Handling Self-Plagiarism

·         Reuse of one’s own published content must be properly cited and disclosed.

·         Extended or duplicate publications based on previous work (e.g., conference abstracts or theses) must be declared in the cover letter.

·         Any article suspected of salami slicing (inappropriately breaking up results from a single study into multiple papers) will be rejected.

7. Editorial Discretion and Appeals

The Editor-in-Chief, along with the Editorial Board, reserves the right to:

·         Make the final decision on the acceptability of content in cases of marginal or disputed similarity.

·         Consider appeals by authors if they believe the finding of plagiarism was incorrect. Appeals must be submitted in writing with supporting evidence.

8. Compliance and Review

This policy is in compliance with:

·         UGC’s Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism Regulation-2018

·         Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)

·         International standards of ethical publishing

The plagiarism policy is reviewed periodically and may be updated to incorporate evolving ethical and technical standards.

For more information or to report suspected plagiarism in IJMJ articles, please contact:

Editor-in-Chief / Editorial Office
International Journal of Medical Justice (IJMJ)
G-1, Ground Floor, City Center, Medical Road
Aligarh 202002, India
📧 editor@ijmj.net | editor.ijmj@gmail.com
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