Plagiarism Policy

Zakariya Journal of Social Sciences (ZJSS) is committed to maintaining academic integrity and preventing all forms of plagiarism and unethical research practices. The journal follows internationally accepted standards of scholarly publishing to ensure originality, transparency, and responsible research communication.

Plagiarism Screening

All submitted manuscripts are subject to plagiarism screening before the peer review process and may also be checked at any stage of publication using reliable plagiarism detection tools.

The purpose of plagiarism checking is to identify:

  • Unoriginal content.
  • Improper citation or referencing.
  • Duplicate publication.
  • Similarity with previously published work.

Types of Unacceptable Practices

ZJSS considers the following practices as academic misconduct:

  • Direct plagiarism: Copying text, ideas, data, or results from another source without proper acknowledgment.
  • Self-plagiarism: Republishing significant portions of an author’s previously published work without appropriate citation or permission.
  • Duplicate submission/publication: Submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals or publishing the same research more than once.
  • Data plagiarism: Using research data, figures, tables, or results without proper permission or acknowledgment.
  • Improper citation: Failing to give credit to original authors or sources.

Similarity Requirements

Authors are responsible for ensuring that submitted manuscripts contain original work and appropriate citations. Manuscripts with excessive similarity or unacceptable plagiarism may be rejected during the editorial process.

Actions Against Plagiarism

If plagiarism or any form of research misconduct is identified:

  • The manuscript may be rejected before or after peer review.
  • Published articles may be corrected, withdrawn, or retracted depending on the severity of the issue.
  • Authors may be restricted from future submissions in serious cases.

Author Responsibilities

Authors must:

  • Submit only original research work.
  • Properly cite all sources and previous studies.
  • Obtain permission for copyrighted material when required.
  • Ensure that their manuscript does not contain fabricated, falsified, or copied content.

Ethical Standards

ZJSS follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices and Guidelines regarding plagiarism, research misconduct, and publication integrity.