Plagiarism Policy
The Journal of Education for the Humanities is committed to publishing original scholarly work and maintaining the highest standards of academic integrity. Plagiarism is considered a serious violation of publication ethics. Other forms of unethical conduct, including duplicate publication, simultaneous submission, fabricated or falsified data, inappropriate credit for research contributions, and intentional misrepresentation of research results, are also unacceptable.
The journal does not tolerate plagiarism, fraud, intentionally inaccurate statements, fabricated data, falsified findings, or any practice that constitutes unethical publishing behavior. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time is also considered unethical and unacceptable.
Definition of Plagiarism and Unethical Similarity
Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:
- Copying text from another source without proper citation.
- Using another person’s ideas, data, tables, figures, results, or arguments without appropriate acknowledgement.
- Paraphrasing another source too closely without proper citation.
- Reusing substantial parts of the author’s own previously published work without disclosure or proper citation.
- Submitting the same or substantially similar manuscript to more than one journal.
- Presenting fabricated, falsified, or intentionally inaccurate data as valid research findings.
- Giving inappropriate credit to individuals who did not contribute substantially to the research, or failing to credit those who made a genuine contribution.
Similarity Screening
All manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Education for the Humanities, whether under evaluation or already published, may be screened for similarity and plagiarism using plagiarism detection software such as Turnitin. The journal rejects the evaluation of any manuscript whose similarity percentage exceeds 20%, according to the journal’s accepted similarity policy.
All newly submitted manuscripts may also be checked using CrossCheck within the editorial system. CrossCheck is a service developed to help editors verify the originality of scholarly manuscripts. It is powered by iThenticate software from iParadigms and is designed to compare submitted manuscripts with a large database of published scholarly content.
A member of the editorial board may also choose to run a similarity report at any stage of the editorial process, including initial screening, peer review, revision, acceptance, production, or post-publication review.
Interpretation of Similarity Reports
The similarity report provides a percentage indicating the extent to which the text of a manuscript overlaps with one or more published or submitted sources. However, the similarity percentage alone is not a final judgment of plagiarism.
A high similarity score does not necessarily mean that the manuscript contains plagiarized text. For example, a similarity score of 30% may indicate that 30% of the text overlaps with one single source, or it may mean that 1% of the text overlaps with each of 30 different sources. In addition, properly cited reused text, references, standard terminology, commonly used phrases, institutional names, and methodological descriptions may contribute to the similarity score.
At present, similarity detection tools may not reliably assess numbers, equations, formulas, or certain technical elements. Therefore, expert editorial judgment is essential in interpreting similarity reports and determining whether the overlap represents acceptable scholarly similarity, improper reuse, or plagiarism.
Editorial Actions
If unacceptable similarity or plagiarism is detected before publication, the manuscript may be rejected, returned to the authors for revision, or subjected to further editorial investigation, depending on the seriousness of the case.
If plagiarism or unethical similarity is detected after publication, the journal may take appropriate action, including issuing a correction, publishing an expression of concern, retracting the article, or notifying the relevant institution when necessary.
Authors are expected to cooperate fully with the editorial team in any investigation related to plagiarism, similarity, duplicate submission, data fabrication, falsification, or other forms of unethical publication behavior.
Author Responsibility
Authors are fully responsible for ensuring the originality, accuracy, and integrity of their manuscripts. Authors must properly cite all sources, avoid excessive textual overlap, disclose any reuse of their own previously published work, and ensure that the manuscript has not been submitted elsewhere at the same time.
By submitting a manuscript to the Journal of Education for the Humanities, authors confirm that the work is original, has not been published previously, is not under consideration by another journal, and complies with the journal’s ethical standards and similarity policy.
