Plagiarism Policy - Social Science Chronicle

Plagiarism is defined as presenting someone else’s work or ideas as one’s own, without proper attribution.

This can take various forms, including but not limited to:

Copying verbatim from another source without citation.
Paraphrasing someone else’s work or ideas without proper attribution.
Using another person’s data or research findings without giving proper credit.
Submitting a previously published article or a substantial part thereof as original work.
Using ideas or concepts from someone else’s work without proper citation.
Reusing one’s own previously published work without proper citation or permission (self-plagiarism).

Social Science Chronicle considers plagiarism as serious violation of research ethics and takes appropriate measures to address any instance of plagiarism.
The Journal uses plagiarism detection software (either Turnitin or iThenticate) to scan all submissions for potential textual similarity. For this the upper limit has been set to 10%. The submitted manuscript, excluding references, is subject to testing. Any submission crossing this threshold limit is summarily rejected.
Thereafter, the editorial management team also conducts a cursory manual review to ensure that submitted manuscripts meet the requisite standards of originality and academic integrity. If at this stage, plagiarism or any other malpractice, including use of non-human writers (like AI or paraphrasing tools) is detected, the manuscript is desk-rejected and the corresponding author is notified about the same.
The journal adheres to a zero-tolerance policy towards plagiarism, and hence any author found guilty of plagiarism – is subjected to penalties, including rejection of submitted manuscript, revocation of acceptance, and possible banning from future submissions. In the case of multiple instances, the author may be reported to their institution, funding agency, or relevant regulatory body.

Plagiarism occurs when someone uses another person’s ideas, work, or words without proper attribution. It is a serious academic offence.

To avoid plagiarism, the following suggestive measures can be adopted :

When writing, express ideas in own words instead of copying.
Whenever using someone else’s work – cite the source properly, i.e. give due credit to the original author and provide information on where the information was found.
If there is dire requirement of using a particular sentence or passage, rephrase it. However, citing the original author and source is a must.
If a direct quote needs to be reproduced, it should be presented within quotation marks and the source be cited without fail.
There are several online plagiarism checking tools that can assist in identifying any potential instances of plagiarism. Use them.
Avoid self-plagiarism.