Policy on Originality and Plagiarism Prevention
Originality Requirement. All manuscripts submitted to Iustitia Criminal Science must be original works and free from any form of plagiarism, including self-plagiarism. Authors are fully responsible for the originality of their submitted work, consistent with the journal's Publication Ethics policy.
Screening by Authors. Before submission, authors are strongly encouraged to check the similarity level of their manuscript using a plagiarism detection tool. See the journal's Recommended Tools for suggested software.
Screening by the Editorial Team. The journal's editorial team conducts a standard plagiarism check on every submitted manuscript using Turnitin, as part of the initial editorial screening described in the journal's Peer Review Process.
Mandatory Reference Management. All citations and the reference list must be generated using Zotero. Manual or inconsistent citation formatting is not accepted. Zotero can be downloaded at: https://www.zotero.org/download/client/dl?channel=release&platform=win-x64. Consistent use of a reference manager helps ensure that all citations and references are presented accurately and reduces the risk of inadvertent misattribution.
Similarity Thresholds and Follow-up
The following thresholds apply to the similarity score generated by the journal's plagiarism-detection screening. These thresholds are indicative and may be adjusted by the editorial board; authors should confirm the current thresholds with the editorial office where in doubt.
- Immediate Rejection: A manuscript with a similarity score of 30% or higher is rejected at the initial screening stage.
- Revision Required: A manuscript with a similarity score of 25% or higher (but below the rejection threshold) is returned to the author for revision prior to further processing.
- Final Threshold: Following revision, the manuscript's similarity score must be reduced to a maximum of 20% before it proceeds to the next stage of review.
Manuscripts found to contain substantial plagiarized content at any stage of the review or publication process — including after acceptance — will be handled in accordance with the journal's Publication Ethics policy and, where applicable, COPE's guidelines on retraction.
For questions regarding this policy, please contact the editorial office at andalasborneojustice@gmail.com.