UJ Press Plagiarism Policy

Introduction

UJ Press is committed to upholding the highest standards of academic integrity. Plagiarism is a serious offence that undermines the credibility of scholarship and authorship. This policy outlines the expectations for authors submitting manuscripts to the Press and the procedures for handling suspected plagiarism.

Definitions

• Plagiarism: The presentation of someone else's work or ideas as your own, including:
  • Verbatim copying
  • Paraphrasing without attribution
  • Mosaic plagiarism (combining unattributed phrases from multiple sources)
  • Self-plagiarism (reusing significant portions of your own previous work without proper citation)
  • Failing to cite data sources

Author Responsibilities

• Authors are responsible for ensuring the originality of their work.
• All sources used in the manuscript, including published and unpublished works, must be properly cited using a recognized style guide.
• Authors must obtain permission to reproduce copyrighted material from the copyright holder.

Manuscript Screening

The Press will use plagiarism detection software to screen all submitted manuscripts. We also require authors to submit a Turnitin or iThenticate report with their manuscript. 

Response to Plagiarism

• If plagiarism is detected during the initial screening, the Press will contact the author(s) and request a detailed explanation.
• Depending on the severity of the plagiarism, the Press may take one or more of the following actions:
  • Request revisions to the manuscript.
  • Reject the manuscript for publication.
  • Report the incident to the author's institution.
  • Withdraw a published work from circulation.

Confidentiality

The Press will maintain the confidentiality of all information related to suspected plagiarism investigations.

Note: This policy was drafted with the assistance of Google Gemini.