Papers submitted to Regional Synergies in Engineering & Society will be screened for plagiarism using the Plag detection tool. In addition, we may use other online resources to ensure the originality of submitted manuscripts.

Regional Synergies in Engineering & Society will immediately reject any paper that demonstrates plagiarism or self-plagiarism.

Plagiarism

Adapted from Bella H. Plagiarism. Saudi J Med Med Sci 2014;2:127
Available from: http://www.sjmms.net/text.asp?2014/2/2/127/137015

Plagiarism is the use of others' published and unpublished ideas or words (or other intellectual property) without attribution or permission, and presenting them as new and original rather than derived from an existing source. The intent and effect of plagiarism is to mislead the reader as to the contributions of the plagiariser. This applies whether the ideas or words are taken from abstracts, research grant applications, Institutional Review Board applications, or unpublished or published manuscripts in any publication format. Plagiarism is scientific misconduct and should be addressed as such.

Self-plagiarism refers to the reuse of an author’s own previously published work without proper citation. While this practice is sometimes unintentional (e.g., in methodology descriptions), it violates copyright agreements and can be considered a form of academic misconduct. Journals may treat self-plagiarism differently from plagiarism of others’ work, but the policy of Regional Synergies in Engineering & Society is clear: such practices are unacceptable.

Types of plagiarism include:

• Direct plagiarism – copying text word-for-word without attribution.
• Mosaic plagiarism – borrowing ideas or opinions from a source and blending them with a few original words without proper credit.

Procedure for reporting plagiarism:

1. Notify the editor of Regional Synergies in Engineering & Society about the suspected case.
2. Provide both the original and plagiarised articles with highlighted sections.
3. If the evidence is convincing, the editor will initiate a formal review process.
4. The plagiarist will be contacted and asked to explain.
5. If no satisfactory response is received, the article will be permanently retracted.
6. The author may be blacklisted and banned from submitting to the journal for a minimum of 5 years.
7. The head of the author’s institution will be formally informed.

Plagiarism can be detected through Plag or other reliable plagiarism detection services.

Authors could check their manuscripts by https://www.crossref.org/services/similarity-check/