Plagiarism — presenting another person’s words, ideas, data or images as one’s own without proper credit — is serious misconduct. JMPCC screens all submissions and acts on plagiarism at any stage.

Screening

Every manuscript is checked with Turnitin at submission and again before acceptance. Figures, maps and photographs may be checked for duplication or manipulation.

Forms of plagiarism

•     Copying text, tables or figures without citation and quotation marks.

•     Text recycling (self-plagiarism): reusing substantial parts of one’s own published work without disclosure.

•     Redundant or duplicate publication: publishing the same data, e.g., from one trial or registry, in more than one article without cross-reference and justification.

•     Translation plagiarism: publishing work in English that was already published in another language, without disclosure and permission.

•     Disguised copying using paraphrasing tools, producing unusual ‘tortured phrases’.

•     Reproducing validated scoring systems, algorithms, figures or images without permission or citation.

•     Publishing the same patient or case in more than one journal, or re-publishing a case already reported by another team without acknowledgement.

•     Thesis-based papers that do not disclose the thesis (disclosure is required but thesis origin is acceptable).

How similarity reports are judged

JMPCC does not rely on a single percentage. Editors examine where overlap occurs, its source and extent. Overlap in standard methods descriptions or definitions, properly cited, is usually acceptable; copied text in the Introduction, Results or Discussion is not.