Plagiarism Policy

Publication Ethics & Originality Screening

Plagiarism Policy

Conditions for submission: plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate submission, and preprint disclosure.

Sinergi International Journal of Psychology upholds high standards of academic integrity and only considers original and unpublished scholarly work. All submitted manuscripts are screened using Turnitin to assess textual similarity. However, the similarity score is only a screening tool; the final determination of plagiarism, improper quotation, duplicate publication, or self-plagiarism remains a matter of editorial judgment.

Similarity Rule Manuscripts should normally show a similarity score below 20%. Duplicate Submission Manuscripts under active review elsewhere or previously published will not be considered. Preprint Allowed Preprints may be accepted if fully disclosed and properly linked at submission.
1 PLAGIARISM & SELF-PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism includes the use of another person's words, ideas, theories, psychological constructs, measurement instruments, datasets, participant responses, statistical results, tables, figures, scales, images, or findings without proper acknowledgment. Self-plagiarism or text recycling refers to the substantial reuse of one's own previously published material without proper citation, disclosure, or scholarly justification. Both are considered serious violations of publication ethics.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that all quotations, paraphrases, borrowed concepts, psychological theories, scales, instruments, participant data, statistical outputs, figures, tables, and reproduced materials are clearly cited and properly referenced. Where necessary, authors must also obtain permission for reused copyrighted scales, questionnaires, test materials, figures, images, or other proprietary psychological instruments.

Similarity Screening Policy:
  • Above 40%: the manuscript may be rejected or returned without review due to excessive overlap, poor paraphrasing, inappropriate quotation, or extensive reuse of previously published material.
  • 20%–40%: the manuscript will normally be returned to the author for major revision, citation correction, paraphrasing improvement, and resubmission for re-checking.
  • Below 20%: the manuscript may proceed, but editors may still require correction if problematic overlap, improper citation, unattributed reuse, or excessive similarity within particular sections is identified.

A low similarity score does not automatically mean the manuscript is free from plagiarism, and a high similarity score does not automatically prove misconduct. Editors assess the source, context, nature, location, extent, attribution, and scholarly significance of the matching material before making a decision.

2 DUPLICATE & REDUNDANT PUBLICATION

Duplicate or redundant publication occurs when an author submits or publishes substantially the same work in more than one venue without proper disclosure, cross-referencing, or scholarly justification. This includes substantial overlap in title, objectives, theoretical framework, participant sample, psychological instruments, datasets, statistical analysis, findings, discussion, implications, or conclusions.

Manuscripts that are under review in another journal, already formally published, or submitted simultaneously to more than one outlet will not be considered. If any part of the manuscript has appeared previously in another form, including conference proceedings, working papers, theses, dissertations, institutional reports, clinical or psychological reports, technical reports, book chapters, or another language version, authors must disclose this clearly at the time of submission.

Editorial Action: If undisclosed duplicate publication or significant redundant overlap is detected, the manuscript may be rejected. If discovered after publication, the journal may issue a correction, expression of concern, or retraction in line with publication-ethics procedures.
3 PREPRINT POLICY

The journal may consider manuscripts previously posted as preprints, provided that the preprint has not undergone formal journal publication and that the preprint status is fully disclosed during submission.

Authors must provide the preprint server name and URL or DOI, and must ensure that the preprint version does not conflict with copyright, participant confidentiality, informed-consent conditions, psychological-test restrictions, institutional agreements, ethical obligations, data-use agreements, or third-party rights. Once the article is published in the journal, authors are encouraged to update the preprint record with a link to the final published version.

Restriction: Preprint posting is permitted, but manuscripts that have already been formally published or are under active review elsewhere are not eligible for consideration.

Editorial Follow-Up and Author Responsibilities

  • All manuscripts may be checked through Turnitin before peer review and, where necessary, after revision.
  • The Editorial Board may provide or request a similarity report during the editorial process.
  • Authors must revise problematic sections carefully, especially where quotation, paraphrasing, citation, theoretical attribution, instrument attribution, source acknowledgment, or reuse of psychological material is insufficient.
  • Authors should not attempt to reduce similarity mechanically by replacing isolated words while retaining substantially copied sentence structures, psychological arguments, methodological descriptions, interpretations, or theoretical narratives.
  • Established psychological theories, constructs, diagnostic criteria, scales, assessment instruments, statistical procedures, and methodological frameworks must be appropriately cited where derived from prior literature or formal sources.
  • Previously published questionnaires, psychological scales, test items, figures, tables, conceptual models, images, or datasets must be clearly identified and used only with appropriate attribution and permission where required.
  • Participant quotations, case descriptions, interview excerpts, or qualitative material must be properly attributed and handled in accordance with confidentiality and ethical requirements.
  • Failure to address similarity concerns adequately may result in rejection or discontinuation of the review process.
  • If plagiarism is identified after publication, the journal will take appropriate action according to its ethics, correction, and retraction policies.
Integrity Principle By submitting to Sinergi International Journal of Psychology, authors confirm that the manuscript is original, properly cited, not under review elsewhere, and free from plagiarism, duplicate publication, unethical text recycling, and undisclosed reuse of previously published psychological, theoretical, methodological, assessment, participant, statistical, or analytical material.