SCREENING FOR PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism Screening Policy

TRANSFORMA: Journal of Community Innovation and Transformation is committed to maintaining the highest standards of academic integrity and originality in scholarly publishing.

Every manuscript submitted to the journal undergoes a plagiarism screening process before entering peer review and, where necessary, after revision prior to publication.

The purpose of plagiarism screening is to ensure that all published articles represent original scholarly work and properly acknowledge the ideas, data, and publications of others.

Screening Procedure

All submitted manuscripts are examined using plagiarism detection software to identify textual similarities with previously published works.

The Editorial Office carefully evaluates the similarity report together with the manuscript content before making an editorial decision.

The evaluation considers both the overall similarity and the nature of the matched content, rather than relying solely on a numerical similarity percentage.

Editorial Assessment

The Editorial Board recognizes that similarity reports may contain legitimate matches, including:

  • Properly cited quotations.
  • References and bibliography.
  • Standard methodological descriptions.
  • Institutional names and official terminology.
  • Common scientific expressions.

Therefore, editorial decisions are based on professional assessment of the similarity report rather than a fixed similarity threshold.

Unacceptable Practices

The following practices are considered unacceptable and may result in immediate rejection of the manuscript:

  • Plagiarism of another person's work.
  • Self-plagiarism or redundant publication without proper disclosure.
  • Extensive copying without appropriate attribution.
  • Paraphrasing intended to conceal copied material.
  • Duplicate submission or duplicate publication.
  • Fabrication or falsification of citations intended to disguise plagiarism.

Editorial Actions

If significant plagiarism or unethical text reuse is identified, the Editorial Board may:

  • Request clarification from the authors.
  • Require manuscript revision before peer review.
  • Reject the manuscript.
  • Withdraw an accepted manuscript prior to publication.
  • Retract a published article if plagiarism is discovered after publication.
  • Notify the authors' institution when serious publication misconduct is confirmed.

The severity of the editorial action will depend on the extent and nature of the plagiarism identified.

Authors' Responsibility

Authors are solely responsible for ensuring that their submitted manuscripts:

  • Are original works.
  • Properly acknowledge all sources.
  • Include accurate citations and references.
  • Do not infringe the intellectual property rights of others.
  • Comply with the publication ethics of TRANSFORMA.

Submission of a manuscript constitutes the authors' declaration that the work is original and has not been plagiarized.

Commitment to Academic Integrity

TRANSFORMA adopts a zero-tolerance approach toward academic misconduct while recognizing that similarity reports require careful human evaluation.

The journal is committed to ensuring that editorial decisions are based on fairness, transparency, professional judgment, and internationally accepted principles of publication ethics, rather than solely on automated similarity scores.