Plagiarism Policy

Plagiarism Policy

DJM is strictly against any unethical act of copying or plagiarism in any form. Plagiarism is said to have occurred when large portions of a manuscript have been copied from existing, previously published resources. All manuscripts submitted for publication to the DJM are cross-checked for plagiarism using Turnitin Plagiarism Detection Software. It is important to note that DJM does not publish manuscripts with a similarity index of 20% or higher.

Manuscripts found to be plagiarized during the initial stages of review are outrightly rejected and not considered for publication in the journal. In case a manuscript is found to be plagiarized after publication, the Editor-in-Chief will conduct a preliminary investigation with the help of a suitable committee constituted for the purpose. If the manuscript is found to be plagiarized beyond the acceptable limits, the journal will contact the author’s Institute / College / University and Funding Agency, if any. A determination of misconduct will lead the journal to run a statement bi-directionally linked online to and from the original paper, to note the plagiarism and provide a reference to the plagiarized material. The paper containing the plagiarism will also be marked on each page of the PDF. Upon determination of the extent of plagiarism, the paper may also be formally retracted.

 

Types of Plagiarism

The journal considers the following types of plagiarism:

  • Full Plagiarism: Previously published content without any changes to the text, idea, and grammar is considered complete plagiarism. It involves presenting exact text from a source as one’s own.
  • Partial Plagiarism: If the content is a mixture of multiple different sources, where the author has extensively rephrased text, then it is known as partial plagiarism.
  • Self-Plagiarism: When an author reuses complete or portions of their pre-published research, then it is known as self-plagiarism. Complete self-plagiarism occurs when an author republishes their own previously published work in a new journal.

 

Policy and Action for Plagiarism

DJM respects intellectual property and aims to protect and promote the original work of its authors. Manuscripts containing plagiarized material are against the standards of quality, research, and innovation. Hence, all authors submitting articles to the journal are expected to adhere to ethical standards and refrain from plagiarism in any form. In case an author is found to be suspected of plagiarism in a submitted or published manuscript, then the journal shall contact the author (s) to submit their explanation within two weeks, which may be forwarded to the Fact Finding Committee (FFC) constituted for the purpose, for further course of action. Suppose the journal does not receive any response from the author within the stipulated time period. In that case, the Director / Dean / Head of the concerned College, Institution, or Organization, or the Vice Chancellor of the University to which the author is affiliated, shall be contacted to take strict action against the concerned author.

DJM shall take serious action against published manuscripts found to contain plagiarism and shall completely remove them from the Journal website and other third-party websites where the paper is listed and indexed. The moment any article published in the Journal database is reported to be plagiarized, DJM will constitute a Fact Finding Committee (FFC) to investigate the same. Upon having established that the manuscript is plagiarized from some previously published work, DJM shall support the original author and manuscript irrespective of the publisher and may take any or all of the following immediate actions or follow the additional course of actions as recommended by the committee:

  • DJM editorial office shall immediately contact the Director / Dean / Head of the concerned College, Institution, or Organization, or the Vice Chancellor of the University to which the author(s) are affiliated, to take strict action against the concerned author.
  • DJM shall remove the PDF copy of the published manuscript from the website and disable all links to the full-text article. The term Plagiarized Manuscript shall be appended to the published manuscript title.
  • DJM shall disable the author account with the journal and reject all future submissions from the author for a period of 5 years or even ban the author permanently.
  • DJM may also display the list of such authors along with their full contact details on the journal website.
  • Any other course of action, as recommended by the Committee or as deemed fit for the instant case, or as decided by the Editorial Board of the DJM from time to time.

 

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  1. The author(s) declare that no artificial intelligence (AI) or AI-assisted tools were used in preparing or creating this manuscript. For more information, view the DJM Artificial Intelligence policy.
  2. The author(s) did not list or cite AI or AI-assisted technologies as an author or co-author because authorship implies responsibilities and contributions that only humans can have.
  3. The author(s) confirm that no AI-generated or AI-assisted tools were used to create or modify any images, figures, or artwork (including graphical abstracts) in the submitted manuscript.
  4. The artificial intelligence (AI) index should be below 15%.