Anti-Plagiarism Policy
Policy Statement
AIMR has zero tolerance for plagiarism in any form. All submitted manuscripts are screened for originality using professional plagiarism detection software before peer review.
Definition
Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:
- Copying text, ideas, images, or data from other sources without proper attribution
- Paraphrasing another's work without citation
- Self-plagiarism: reusing substantial portions of one's own previously published work without disclosure
- Submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals simultaneously
Screening Process
- All manuscripts undergo automated plagiarism screening upon submission
- Manuscripts with a similarity index above 20% (excluding references and properly attributed quotes) are flagged for review
- The editor evaluates flagged manuscripts to determine if the similarity constitutes plagiarism
- Authors may be asked to revise and resubmit with proper citations
Consequences
| Severity | Action |
|---|---|
| Minor (isolated improper citation) | Author asked to revise |
| Moderate (significant uncited text) | Manuscript rejected |
| Severe (substantial plagiarism) | Manuscript rejected + author banned for 2 years |
| Post-publication discovery | Article retracted with public notice |
In all cases of confirmed plagiarism:
- The author's institution may be notified
- The incident may be reported to COPE
- A retraction notice will be published if the article was already published
Author Responsibilities
Authors must:
- Ensure all sources are properly cited
- Use quotation marks for direct quotes
- Clearly indicate when ideas or methods come from other sources
- Disclose all prior publications of the same research
- Submit only original, unpublished work
This policy is aligned with COPE Guidelines on plagiarism.