Management and Education Journal maintains a zero-tolerance policy regarding plagiarism, self-plagiarism, data fabrication, and redundant publication. All manuscripts submitted to the journal must represent entirely original work. The editorial team believes that academic integrity is paramount; therefore, any form of intellectual dishonesty will be treated with gravity.

To ensure compliance with these ethical standards, the journal implements a systematic and rigorous screening process for all submissions.

1. Screening for Plagiarism

Before entering the formal peer-review process, every submitted manuscript will undergo an initial mandatory screening for plagiarism. Management and Education Journal utilizes professional text-matching software, specifically Turnitin and/or Crossref Similarity Check (powered by iThenticate), to detect similarities with previously published web content, academic articles, books, and institutional repositories.

2. Similarity Threshold and Limits

The journal applies strict threshold limits to maintain the originality of published content:

• The maximum acceptable overall similarity index is 20%.

• The similarity index from any single external source must not exceed 3%.

• The software screening must exclude the bibliography/references section and properly quoted text strings (with quotation marks) to prevent artificial inflation of the similarity percentage.

3. Types of Plagiarism Addressed

The software screening and editorial assessment target several forms of academic misconduct, including:

• Direct Plagiarism: Verbatim copying of text from other sources without clear attribution, quotation marks, or proper citation.

• Paraphrasing Plagiarism: Rewriting or changing a few words from another author's work while keeping the exact sentence structure and ideas without acknowledging the source.

• Self-Plagiarism (Text Recycling): Reusing significant portions of the author’s own previously published work (such as conference papers or previous journal articles) without proper cross-referencing or disclosure to the editors.

• Patchwork Plagiarism (Mosaic): Interweaving sentences and phrases from different external sources to create a manuscript without genuine original analysis or synthesis.

4. Handling Plagiarism Violations

If a manuscript is found to exceed the tolerated similarity threshold or contains clear evidence of plagiarism, the editorial team will take action based on the severity of the infraction:

• Before Publication (During Desk Review or Review Stage):

  • Minor Infraction (Similarity slightly above 20% due to standard terminology or lack of paraphrasing): The manuscript will be returned to the authors. They will be given a one-time opportunity to thoroughly revise, paraphrase, and properly cite the text before it can be re-evaluated.

  • Major Infraction (Deliberate copying, similarity significantly above 20%, or plagiarized ideas): The manuscript will be rejected immediately (Desk Rejection). The editorial team will send a formal notification to the corresponding author, and the submission will be permanently closed.

• After Publication (Post-Publication Discovery):

  • If plagiarism is discovered and proven after an article has been published online, the Management and Education Journal will follow the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines.

  • The article will be formally retracted. A public Notice of Retraction will be linked to the article's abstract page, and the PDF file will be watermarked with a "RETRACTED" stamp to preserve the integrity of the scientific record.