The Policy of Screening for Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the copying or disclosure of another person’s ideas, words, or works without permission or proper acknowledgment, making it appear as if they are the author’s original work. This may include direct copying, paraphrasing without citation, or reproducing parts of other articles without permission.

The International Journal of Health Concord (IHC) applies a strict plagiarism screening policy. All articles submitted must be original, and no content should have been previously published or reproduced without proper citation. Manuscripts are screened using credible plagiarism detection software, such as Turnitin. Manuscripts exceeding the similarity threshold or involving self-plagiarism will be immediately rejected.

Initial Editorial Assessment

During the initial editorial assessment, all manuscripts are checked for plagiarism before peer review. Manuscripts passing this screening must have a similarity index of less than 20%. Articles exceeding this threshold will be returned to authors for revision and resubmission. Manuscripts with low similarity indicate good writing quality and are forwarded to reviewers.

Level of Plagiarism and Corresponding Actions

• Minor: Short section plagiarized without significant data or ideas from another paper.
  Action: Authors are warned and required to revise text and cite sources appropriately.
• Intermediate: Significant portion plagiarized without proper citation.
  Action: Manuscript is rejected, and authors are barred from submitting to IHC for one year.
• Severe: Large portion reproduces original results or ideas from another publication.
  Action: Manuscript is rejected, and authors are barred from submitting to IHC for five years.

Additional Notes

1. All authors are responsible for manuscript content and must comply with IHC’s copyright and licensing terms. Penalties apply to all listed authors.
2. Repeated plagiarism may result in a permanent ban, as decided by the Editorial Board.
3. Reuse of previously published material (figures, text) must be cited and permission obtained. Self-plagiarism is categorized as minor, intermediate, or severe depending on overlap.
4. If a manuscript overlaps with another journal’s submission, it is treated as severe plagiarism, and the other journal’s editor is notified.
5. Republishing conference proceedings, translations, or historical papers requires clear citation and copyright permission.

Identifying Plagiarism

• Literal copying: Verbatim copying without acknowledgment.
• Substantial copying: Large portions reproduced without citation.
• Paraphrasing: Rewriting ideas or text without proper acknowledgment; unethical if not cited and harder to detect.

The IHC editorial office maintains a list of authors penalized for plagiarism and ensures no submission from a banned author is accepted. This policy is publicly available on the IHC website and provided to authors upon manuscript submission confirmation.