Anti-plagiarism policy

Anti-Plagiarism Policy

IJAAP has zero tolerance for plagiarism, self-plagiarism, data fabrication, image manipulation, and undisclosed use of generative AI. All submissions are screened before peer review and again before publication.

Screening Tool

Every submitted manuscript is checked using iThenticate (Turnitin's scholarly publisher tool), with the report retained in the editorial file. IJAAP holds an active iThenticate publisher account through Crossref Similarity Check.

Similarity Thresholds

  • Overall similarity: ≤ 15% (excluding bibliography, quoted text, and standard methodological wording)
  • Single-source similarity: ≤ 3%
  • Authors' own prior work (self-overlap): ≤ 5% and only where explicitly disclosed and cited

Action Taken by Similarity Band

  • 0–15% overall AND all single sources ≤ 3% → proceed to peer review.
  • 15–25% overall OR any single source between 3–10% → returned to authors for revision and re-screening before peer review.
  • > 25% overall OR any single source > 10% → desk-rejection and permanent record on the author's IJAAP file.

Post-Publication Detection

If plagiarism is detected after publication, IJAAP follows COPE's Retraction Guidelines. Depending on severity, IJAAP will issue a Correction, an Expression of Concern, or a full Retraction, and will notify the corresponding author's institution. All notices are linked to the original DOI via Crossmark.

Duplicate and Redundant Submission

Simultaneous submission to more than one journal, salami-slicing, and re-publication of substantially overlapping work constitute misconduct. Authors are required to declare, at the time of submission, that the manuscript is not under review elsewhere and has not been published in whole or in substantial part.

AI-Generated Text

Undisclosed use of generative AI to produce substantive portions of the manuscript is treated as a form of authorship misrepresentation. Authors must disclose use of AI tools per the journal's Generative AI Policy; any undisclosed AI-generated content detected via specialised detectors will be handled under the misconduct workflow.

Author Responsibility

Authors are individually and collectively responsible for the accuracy and integrity of every part of the submitted manuscript, including references, quotations, statistics, and figures.