Plagiarism Policy & Screening

Scientific Collaborative Online Publishing Universal Academy (SCOPUA) uses Turnitin, an online tool to help the editors verify the originality of submitted manuscripts. A manuscript with less than a 20% similarity index can be accepted for publication. Plagiarism is when an author attempts to pass off someone else's work as his or her own. Duplicate publication, sometimes called self-plagiarism, occurs when an author reuses substantial parts of his or her own published work without providing the appropriate references. This can range from getting an identical manuscript published in multiple journals/series to salami-slicing, where authors add small amounts of new data to a previous manuscript.

  • SCOPUA is committed to promoting and disseminating original research work.
  • Plagiarism in any form cannot be tolerated by SCOPUA at any stage, as it shows unethical publishing behaviour.
  • All selected manuscripts will be screened for plagiarism using Turnitin software.
  • The manuscript in which the plagiarism is detected is handled based on the extent of the plagiarism.
  • SCOPUA follows the guidelines contained in the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) flowchart to manage a case of plagiarism. The person who reported the situation is informed about the process to be followed.
  • The manuscripts are compared to check the degree of copying. All editors of the SCOPUA are informed and asked for their comments. The corresponding author of the manuscript in question is contacted with documentary evidence of the case of plagiarism and is asked for a response.
  • If the author(s) are found guilty of plagiarism, the editor of the journal/book series in which the original plagiarized manuscript was published and the authors of the plagiarized manuscript are informed. SCOPUA publishes an official retraction notice of the manuscript, and a retraction watermark will be applied across every page of the manuscript's PDF version to clearly alert readers that the content is invalid due to significant flaws, errors, or misconduct.