The editor will run plagiarism check using iThenticate/Turnitin/Grammarly for the submitted articles before sending to the reviewers. We do not process any plagiarised contents. If a manuscript has over 25% (Exclude Bibliography) of plagiarism based on the result of check and the similarity score to each source is no more than 6%, we will send back the manuscript to the author to be revised for the plagiarised contents.

If similarities with already published material are detected, then depending on the extent of the similarities, the editor may reject the paper or contact the author and ask for an explanation/revision (e.g. in the case of suspected self-plagiarism).

We are aware that using plagiarism detection softwares may result to unjust accusations and therefore our team (editor and editorial board members) will consider all data in order to determine if the paper under examination bears new scientific data that deserve to be published.

On the other hand, if it is decided that the author deliberate plagiarized a paper this may even cause the banning of all co-authors from our journal for a certain period or even permanently. In such a case, the authors will be contacted and an explanation will be asked.

In case of a published paper that is judged to be the result of plagiarism, the paper will be retracted and this will be clearly stated in the paper's title, in the abstract page and in the pdf and an explanation/cause of retraction will also be provided.

Plagiarism is the exposure of another person’s thoughts or words as though they were your own, without permission, credit, or acknowledgment, or because of failing to cite the sources properly. Plagiarism can take diverse forms, from literal copying to paraphrasing the work of another. To accurately judge whether an author has plagiarized, we emphasize the following possible situations:

• An author can literally copy another author’s work- by copying word by word, in whole or in part, without permission, acknowledge or citing the original source. This practice can be identified by comparing the original source and the manuscript/work who is suspected of plagiarism.
• Substantial copying implies an author to reproduce a substantial part of another author, without permission, acknowledge, or citation. The substantial term can be understood both in terms of quality as quantity, being often used in the context of Intellectual property. Quality refers to the relative value of the copied text in proportion to the work as a whole.
• Paraphrasing involves taking ideas, words, or phrases from a source and crafting them into new sentences within the writing. This practice becomes unethical when the author does not properly cite or does not acknowledge the original work/author. This form of plagiarism is the more difficult form to be identified.