Plagiarism & Research Misconduct

JSHE maintains a zero-tolerance policy on all forms of research misconduct. Every submitted manuscript is processed through plagiarism detection software prior to editorial screening. Manuscripts with a similarity index exceeding 20% — excluding references, properly quoted text, and standard methods language — are subject to immediate rejection or return to authors for explanation and revision, at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.

Definitions of Research Misconduct

Plagiarism is defined as using another's work, ideas, or language without proper attribution, including verbatim copying, paraphrasing without citation, and concept theft. Self-plagiarism refers to re-publishing one's own previously published work without disclosure — including duplicate publication, redundant reporting, and text recycling from prior manuscripts. Data Fabrication involves inventing research data or results that do not exist, such as generating fictitious participant responses or inventing measurement values. Data Falsification involves manipulating, altering, or selectively omitting data to change or misrepresent outcomes, including cherry-picking results, excluding outliers without methodological justification, or altering images. Duplicate Submission refers to submitting the same manuscript to two or more journals simultaneously without disclosure. Salami Slicing refers to the practice of publishing one study's findings across multiple papers to artificially inflate publication count. Image Manipulation covers any alteration of figures beyond what is scientifically acceptable — including splicing, inappropriate brightness adjustments that misrepresent data, or removal of bands from gels. Ghost or Gift Authorship refers to including individuals as authors who did not meaningfully contribute to the work, or excluding individuals who did.

Consequences of Confirmed Misconduct

When research misconduct is confirmed prior to publication, the manuscript will be immediately rejected. The authors' institutions and funding bodies will be notified in serious cases, and the case will be managed in accordance with COPE flowcharts. When misconduct is confirmed or discovered after publication, the article will be formally retracted with a published retraction notice. The retraction notice will clearly state the reason for retraction and will be linked bidirectionally to the original article. The article will remain permanently accessible, clearly marked as "RETRACTED," in accordance with the scholarly record's integrity principles. Authors found to have engaged in confirmed serious misconduct may be sanctioned and barred from future submissions to any journal published by Spectrum Scholarly Press.