Plagiarism Policy

The Avicenna Journal of Health Sciences (AJHS) has a clearly defined plagiarism policy to promote ethical, original, and innovative research. The plagiarized manuscript has copy-pasted content from another research without crediting the source with proper references. This includes self-plagiarism, the author’s own work published by their name already cannot be used without the consent of that journal and will need to be mentioned in the reference.

AJHS uses software named “Turnitin” for similarity check, following the criteria/guidelines defined by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan, ICMJE, and COPE.

The similarity index should be less than 19% in aggregate as well as single source should also be less than or equal to 4%. If the similarity index is more than 19%, the manuscript is not processed further until revised by the author. If a plagiarized manuscript is submitted multiple times, it is rejected from further processing. (In case plagiarism similarity is more than 50% then the submission is declined initially). 

Publication misconduct is dealt by asking the corresponding author for an explanation within two weeks.  If author's justification is valid, the editorial board recommends appropriate changes, after which the manuscript may proceed for review. On other-hand if author failed to respond in two weeks or if there is an unsatisfactory explanation, the editorial board will decide regarding the fate of the article and authors, including rejection of the manuscript, retraction of already published article. A retraction notice will also be on the journal’s website. The institutional head, HEC, PMC, and other editorial associations may also be informed of this misconduct.

Types of Plagiarism

The following types of plagiarism are considered by AJHS:

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

HEC Plagiarism Policy 2023

https://www.hec.gov.pk/english/policies/Documents/Plagiarism-Policy.pdf