Plagiarism Policy

Auna Press is committed to maintaining academic integrity, originality, and responsible scholarly publishing. All manuscripts submitted for publication must be original works and must properly acknowledge the ideas, words, data, and materials derived from other sources.

1. Plagiarism Screening

All submitted manuscripts may undergo plagiarism or similarity screening using an appropriate plagiarism-detection system during the editorial process.

Auna Press establishes a maximum overall similarity threshold of 20% for submitted manuscripts. The similarity score is used as an initial screening indicator and is not, by itself, considered definitive evidence of plagiarism.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their manuscripts comply with this requirement before submission.

2. Similarity Threshold

The similarity score should generally be:

  • ≤ 20% — The manuscript may proceed to the next stage of editorial evaluation, subject to other editorial and academic requirements.
  • > 20% — The manuscript may be returned to the authors for revision or may be rejected, depending on the extent and nature of the similarities.

The editorial team may assess the sources and context of the similarities before making a final decision.

3. Assessment of Similarity

Auna Press recognizes that some legitimate similarities may occur in academic manuscripts, including:

  • technical terms and standard terminology;
  • commonly used academic expressions;
  • references and bibliographic information;
  • titles of established concepts or theories;
  • properly quoted material; and
  • standardized methodological descriptions.

Therefore, the 20% threshold does not automatically determine whether plagiarism has occurred. Editors may examine the similarity report to determine whether the similarities represent legitimate academic usage or inappropriate copying.

4. Author Responsibility

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their manuscripts:

  • contain original scholarly contributions;
  • properly cite all sources;
  • use quotation marks for directly quoted material;
  • appropriately paraphrase ideas from other sources;
  • acknowledge the use of data, figures, tables, images, and other materials;
  • do not contain unattributed copied material; and
  • do not constitute duplicate or redundant publication.

5. Manuscripts Exceeding 20%

When a manuscript has a similarity score exceeding 20%, the editorial team may request the authors to revise the manuscript and reduce inappropriate textual overlap.

After revision, the manuscript may be screened again before proceeding to peer review or further editorial evaluation.

If substantial unattributed similarity is identified, the manuscript may be rejected regardless of the overall similarity percentage.

6. Self-Plagiarism

Authors should not substantially reuse their previously published text, data, figures, or findings without appropriate citation and disclosure.

Self-plagiarism and duplicate publication may be considered publication-ethics violations when previously published material is reused without appropriate acknowledgment or when the reuse creates a redundant publication.

7. Plagiarism Detected After Publication

If plagiarism or serious academic misconduct is discovered after publication, Auna Press may investigate the matter and take appropriate action.

Depending on the circumstances, actions may include:

  • issuing a correction;
  • publishing an expression of concern;
  • correcting or removing affected content where appropriate; or
  • retracting the article.

Any action will be taken to protect the integrity and reliability of the scholarly record.

8. Commitment to Academic Integrity

Auna Press uses the 20% similarity threshold as an editorial screening standard to support originality and academic integrity. However, the final determination of plagiarism is based on the nature, context, and source of the identified similarities rather than the similarity percentage alone.

All authors, editors, reviewers, and editorial staff are expected to uphold the principles of originality, proper attribution, transparency, and responsible scholarly communication.