Plagiarism Policy

IMJ follows a strict policy on plagiarism, which is considered a serious violation of publication ethics. To ensure originality of all manuscripts, IMJ uses iThenticate, a plagiarism prevention software, for screening both submitted and published manuscripts. Other violations of publication ethics include duplicate publication, data fabrication and falsification, and improper credit of author contribution. IMJ deems fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements as unethical behaviour and unacceptable. Concurrent submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal is also considered unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable. However, IMJ may overlook duplication of up to 20% of the manuscript.

To verify originality of papers, IMJ uses CrossCheck, a service powered by iThenticate software from iParadigms, which provides Turnitin in the academic community. The editorial system automatically screens all new submissions to many IMJ using CrossCheck. The Editorial Board members may also run a similarity report at any point during the review process or post-publication. Note that the similarity report view provides the percentage of text overlap between the manuscript and published articles. Currently, figures and equations cannot be checked. It is important to note that a high similarity score does not always mean the text has been plagiarized, as text that has been legitimately cited in the bibliography may also contribute to the score. Therefore, the expertise of the editorial expert is crucial in interpreting the CrossCheck report and determining any grounds for concern. A searchable list of all journals in the CrossCheck database is available at www.ithenticate.com.