Journal of Materials Research Communications
Plagiarism Policy
JMRC does not tolerate plagiarism in any form. Every submission is checked for similarity to published and online content before it is sent for peer review.
What counts as plagiarism
- Copying text, data, figures, tables or ideas from another source without appropriate citation.
- Presenting another person's work, including unpublished work seen during peer review, as one's own.
- Text recycling (self-plagiarism): reusing substantial parts of one's own previously published text without citation.
- Duplicate or redundant publication: publishing the same research, or substantially the same results, in more than one journal.
- Closely paraphrasing another source, including through machine translation or automated rewriting tools, without citation.
Similarity screening
All submitted manuscripts are screened with similarity-detection software, and every report is reviewed by an editor. A report is never judged on its percentage alone: editors look at where the overlapping text occurs and whether it is properly attributed. Standard phrases, correctly quoted and cited passages, and brief descriptions of established methods are not treated as plagiarism. As a guide, an overall similarity above 15%, or more than 5% overlap with a single source, prompts a closer examination.
Action taken
| Stage | Situation | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Before review | Minor overlap, for example in the methods, with citation | The authors may be asked to rephrase or add citations before review. |
| Before review | Substantial copying or duplicate submission | The manuscript is rejected. Serious or repeated cases may be reported to the authors' institution. |
| During review | Plagiarism detected by an editor or reviewer | Review is suspended and the case is handled following the COPE flowcharts; the authors are asked for an explanation. |
| After publication | Plagiarism or redundant publication confirmed | A correction or retraction is published under our Corrections, Retractions & Appeals policy. |
Text recycling in methods sections
Limited reuse of wording to describe standard methods that the authors have published before is acceptable, provided that the original publication is cited. Reusing text in the introduction, results, discussion or conclusions is not acceptable.
Theses, preprints and conference papers
Manuscripts based on a thesis or dissertation, a preprint or a short conference abstract are welcome, provided that the earlier version is disclosed in the cover letter. Manuscripts based on a full paper published in conference proceedings must be substantially extended, typically with at least 30% new content, and must cite the conference paper.
Reporting plagiarism
If you believe that material published in JMRC has been plagiarised, or that a JMRC article has been plagiarised elsewhere, please write to editor@jmrconline.com with details of both works. All reports are treated confidentially.