Plagiarism and Similarity Policy

Plagiarism is the unauthorized use of another person’s ideas, processes, results, or words without proper attribution. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Copying text verbatim from another source without quotation or citation.
• Paraphrasing content without acknowledging the original author.
• Using research data or findings without appropriate citation.
• Republishing one’s own previously published work (self-plagiarism) without disclosure.

Any kind of plagiarism is a major ethical transgression that might result in legal repercussions, rejection, retraction, or notice to organizations.  IPMU is absolutely against plagiarism in any form.

Similarity Checking

IPMU requires all manuscripts to be unique and free from any form of plagiarism. To guarantee this:

• Before submitting their work, authors are highly recommended to use software like Turnitin or iThenticate to check for similarities.
• The same tools will be used by the editorial team to independently confirm the manuscript’s resemblance.

Any manuscripts that are discovered to be plagiarized or overly similar will be rejected right away.
Similarity Boundaries:

• The overall similarity index can’t be more than 25%.
• A single source’s similarity cannot be more than 10%.

During similarity analysis, standard exclusions are applied, including references, frequently used phrases, and appropriately quoted items.

The final (camera-ready) version of each accepted manuscript will be re-checked for similarity. If any ethical violations are detected at this stage, publication may be revoked.

This policy follows to international publishing ethics guidelines established by:

• COPE – Committee on Publication Ethics
• ICMJE – International Committee of Medical Journal Editors
• WAME – World Association of Medical Editors

All accepted manuscripts undergo similarity and plagiarism screening prior to publication to uphold the integrity of the scholarly record.