Plagiarism and Retraction
JWA Editorial board recognizes that plagiarism is unacceptable and establishes the following policy stating specific actions (penalties) when plagiarism is identified in an article submitted for publication in JWA. JWA will use Turnitin's originality checking software as our tool in detecting similarities of texts in articles. A maximum of 25% of similarities is allowed for the submitted papers. Should we find more than 25% of the similarity index, the article will be returned to the author for correction and resubmission.
Definition:
Plagiarism involves the use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's original work.
Policy:
Papers must be original, unpublished, and not pending publication elsewhere. Any material taken verbatim from another source needs to be identified as different from the present original text by (1) indentation, (2) use of quotation marks, and (3) identification of the source.
Any text of an amount exceeding fair use standards (herein defined as more than two or three sentences or the equivalent thereof).
Any graphic material reproduced from another source requires permission from the copyright holder and, if feasible, the original author(s) and also requires identification of the source, e.g., previous publication.
When plagiarism is identified, the Chief Editor is responsible for the paper's review and will agree on measures according to the extent of plagiarism detected in the paper in agreement with the following guidelines:
Level of Plagiarism
Minor:
A short section of another article is plagiarized without any significant data or idea taken from the other paper.
Action:
A warning is given to the authors, and a request to change the text and properly cite the original article is made
Intermediate:
A significant portion of a paper is plagiarized without proper citation to the original paper
Action:
The submitted article is rejected, and the authors are forbidden to submit further articles for one year
Severe:
A significant portion of a paper is plagiarized, reproducing original results or ideas presented in another publication
Action:
The paper is rejected, and the authors are forbidden to submit further articles for five years.
It is understood that all authors are responsible for the content of their submitted paper as they all read and understand JWA's Copyright and Licensing Terms. All authors will be subject to the same penalty if a penalty is imposed for plagiarism.
Suppose the second case of plagiarism by the same author(s) is identified. In that case, a decision on the measures to be enforced will be made by the Editorial board. The author(s) might be forbidden to submit further articles forever.
This policy applies to material reproduced from another publication by the same author(s). If an author uses text or figures that have previously been published, the corresponding paragraphs or figures should be identified and the previous publication referenced. It is understood that much of the previous material was a published review paper or a paper of a tutorial nature.
The author should identify the source of the previously published material and obtain permission from the original author and the publisher. Suppose the author(s) submits a significant overlap manuscript with a manuscript submitted to another journal simultaneously. This overlap is discovered during the review process or after the publications of both papers. In that case, the other Journal's editor is notified. The case is treated as a severe plagiarism case. Significant overlap means using identical or almost identical figures and identical or slightly modified text for one-half or more of the paper. For self-plagiarism of less than one-half of the paper but more than one-tenth of the paper, the case shall be treated as intermediate plagiarism. If self-plagiarism is confined to the methods section, the case shall be considered minor plagiarism.
Suppose an author uses some of his previously published material to clarify the presentation of new results. In that case, the previously published material shall be identified, and the difference from the present publication shall be mentioned. Permission to republish must be obtained from the copyright holder. In the case of a manuscript initially published in conference proceedings and then submitted for publication in JWA either in identical or in expanded form, the authors must identify the name of the conference proceedings and the date of the publication and obtain permission to republish from the copyright holder. The editor may decide not to accept this paper for publication.
However, an author shall be permitted to use material from an unpublished presentation, including visual displays, in a subsequent journal publication. In the case of a publication in another language, the authors must identify the title, date, and Journal of the original publication, and the copyright must be obtained. The editor may accept such a translated publication to bring it to the attention of a wider audience. The editor may select a specific paper published (e.g. a "historic" paper) for republication to provide a better perspective of a series of papers published in one issue of JWA. This republication shall be identified, including the date and Journal of the original publication shall be given, and the permission of the author(s) and the publisher shall be obtained.
The JWA layout editor for the Journal is responsible for maintaining the list of authors subjected to penalties and will check that no authors of a submitted paper are on this list. If a banned author is identified, the layout editor will inform the Editor-in-Chief, who will take appropriate measures. This policy will be posted on the website with the instructions for submitting a manuscript. A copy will be sent to the authors with the confirmation email upon initial receipt of their original manuscript.
The papers published in JWA will be considered for a retraction if :
- They have clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct (e.g. data fabrication) or honest error (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error)
- the findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper crossreferencing, permission or justification (i.e. cases of redundant publication)
- it constitutes plagiarism
- it reports unethical research
- The mechanism of retraction follows the Retraction Guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), which can be accessed at https://publicationethics.org/files/retraction%20guidelines.pdf.
