IJBEMP regards originality as an indispensable condition of scholarly publishing. Within the scope of this policy, similarity and plagiarism are treated as two distinct concepts:
· Similarity: A measurable rate of word- and sentence-level overlap between a text and other sources. Similarity alone is not an ethical violation; it may arise from legitimate causes such as proper quotation, terminology, or descriptions of methods.
· Plagiarism: The use of another person’s ideas, data, words, or creative work without attribution. Plagiarism is a breach of publication ethics assessed independently of the outcome of similarity screening.
Similarity screening is a preliminary tool used in detecting plagiarism; however, a finding of plagiarism is not based solely on the screening rate. The final assessment is made by the editorial office by examining the nature of the overlap and the appropriateness of source use.
Similarity Screening
All manuscripts submitted to the journal undergo similarity screening twice — before editorial preliminary assessment and in the final pre-publication check. Screening may be carried out using iThenticate, Turnitin, or equivalent academic similarity detection software. When evaluating the report, only the bibliography is excluded; quotations and citations remain visible in the report.
Acceptable Similarity Threshold
The generally accepted upper limit at our journal is a 20% similarity rate, with only the bibliography excluded. This rate is not an absolute threshold; situations such as heavy quotation from a single source, consecutive sentence overlap, or concentration in the methods section are additionally taken into account in editorial assessment. Manuscripts exceeding the limit are returned to the author with a request for revision.
What Constitutes Plagiarism
Even where the similarity rate is low, the following are treated as plagiarism:
· Direct plagiarism: Reproducing text from another source verbatim without quotation marks and without citation.
· Patchwriting: Presenting a text with substituted words or slightly altered sentence structure without citing the source.
· Plagiarism of ideas: Appropriating another author’s original idea, method, or interpretation without attribution.
· Plagiarism of images and data: Using tables, graphs, figures, or datasets without permission and without citation.
· Self-plagiarism: Reusing substantial portions of one’s own previous publications without citing them and without disclosing the fact.
· Translation plagiarism: Translating and publishing a work published in another language without permission or attribution.
· AI-assisted plagiarism: Presenting content generated by generative artificial intelligence tools as the author’s own, without attribution and without declaring its use.
Investigation
Manuscripts suspected of plagiarism are subject to the reporting and investigation process described under “Publication Misconduct Statement” The investigation is conducted in accordance with Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) flowcharts. A high similarity rate alone is not sufficient for a finding of plagiarism; likewise, a low rate does not rule out the possibility of plagiarism.
Author Responsibility
The responsibility for avoiding plagiarism rests entirely with the author. Authors are obliged to cite all sources used in full, to indicate passages drawn from other works in accordance with proper citation rules, and to cite their own previously published works. At the time of submission, the author(s) declare that the work is original and has not been published elsewhere.