Plagiarism Policy

Plagiarism involves duplicating the past, ideas, outcomes, or words of another person without explicit acknowledgement of the author's identity or legitimacy. An author engages in self-plagiarism by utilizing a significant portion of their previously published work without acknowledging any references. This can range from publishing the same manuscript in multiple journals to editing a previously published manuscript with new information.

The journal strictly opposes any unethical copying or plagiarism in any form. Plagiarism is said to have occurred when a large part of the manuscript was copied from existing, previously published sources. All manuscripts submitted for publication to the journal are checked for plagiarism using Plagiarism Checker X software. Manuscripts found to be plagiarized in the initial review phase are rightly rejected and not considered for publication in the journal. If plagiarism is discovered in the manuscript after publication, the editor-in-chief will conduct a preliminary investigation, possibly with the help of an appropriate committee formed for that purpose. If a manuscript is found to be plagiarized beyond acceptable limits, the journal will contact the author's institute/college/university and funding agency, if any.

As a result of the discovery of misconduct, the journal publishes a two-page statement online, linked to and from the original article, admitting the plagiarism and providing a reference to the plagiarized material. The paper containing the plagiarism is also marked on each page of the PDF file. Once the extent of the plagiarism is determined, the paper may also be formally retracted.

Journal will constitute a Fact Finding Committee (FFC) to investigate the same. After determining that a manuscript is plagiarized from previously published work, the journal endorses the original author and the manuscript regardless of publisher and may take some immediate actions.

Actions to be taken:

1. Editorial office shall immediately contact the Head of the concerned Organization to which the author(s) is (are) affiliated to take strict action against the concerned author.
   2. Journal shall remove the PDF copy of the published manuscript from the website and disable all links to full text article. The term Plagiarized Manuscript shall be appended to the published manuscript title.
   3. Journal shall ban the author account with the journal and reject all future submissions from the author for a period of years or even ban the authors permanently.
   4. Journal may also display the list of such authors along with their full contact details on the journal website.
   5. Any other course of action, as recommended by the Committee or as deemed fit for the instant case or as decided by the Editorial Board from time to time.