“When somebody presents the work of others (data, words or theories) as if they were his/her own and without proper acknowledgment."
For Taylor & Francis journals, this applies to data, images, words or ideas taken from any materials in electronic or print formats without sufficient attribution. This can include:
The use of any such material either directly or indirectly should be properly acknowledged in all instances. You should always cite your source (please see ‘How to avoid plagiarism’ below).
According to the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) this is:
“Appropriating someone else’s idea (e.g., an explanation, a theory, a conclusion, a hypothesis, a metaphor) in whole or in part, or with superficial modifications without giving credit to its originator.”
The ORI provides some good examples of the plagiarism of ideas, including the phenomenon of unconscious plagiarism (i.e., cryptomnesia).
Trust and integrity are among what readers value the most in scholarly peer-reviewed journal content. When plagiarism has been detected in a journal article it places doubt in that trust, because if an author is prepared to mislead readers about how they came across their material, how can you really be certain of the scientific rigor in the rest of their work?
Readers should be able to distinguish what is and isn’t original in a journal article. Authors should be properly credited for their work if that work is being re-used in another’s article. This is in accordance with international copyright laws and ethical conduct guidelines.
As indicated below, duplicate publication of original research is particularly prevalent and damaging (especially in the medical and health subject areas) since it can contribute to the distortion of the available evidence in academic literature.
In addition to the direct copying of text, with or without paraphrasing, from a single source without proper acknowledgement, the common types of plagiarism are:
This is when text is lifted from a few different sources (which may include your own previous work) and put into your manuscript to create the impression of new text. This includes rewording pieces of sourced material while keeping the structure/syntax of the original texts.
This is the redundant reuse of your own work (e.g., text, data, and images), including text translated from another language, usually without proper citation. It creates repetition in the academic literature and can skew meta-analyses if you publish the same sets of data multiple times as “new” data. Two forms of self-plagiarism include:
Other types of plagiarism also exist. What they all have in common is that there is a lack of transparency to the original source of the material which has been used in the manuscript.
We recognize there can be legitimate reasons for overlap in some cases. For example, the following would not be considered plagiarism/ duplicate publication:
According to the ICMJE recommendations:
“Secondary publication of material published in other journals or online may be justifiable and beneficial, especially when intended to disseminate important information to the widest possible audience (e.g., guidelines produced by government agencies and professional organizations in the same or a different language).”
The recommendations go on to state that secondary publication for various other reasons may also be justifiable provided the conditions listed 1 to 6 in Section III.D.3. are met.
The essential message here is about ensuring you are being transparent and inform the journal about any potential overlap with other sources on submission of your manuscript. This allows the journal to consider if the secondary publication is acceptable or not. Where it is acceptable, the journal will indicate it as a secondary publication (complete or abridged republication or translation) of a primary publication and for all simultaneously published joint publications include a statement making the simultaneous publication clear to readers.
Taylor & Francis uses Crossref Similarity Check to screen for unoriginal material. Authors submitting to a Taylor & Francis journal should be aware that their paper may be submitted to Crossref Similarity Check at any point during the peer-review or production process.
Where overlap is found, the results of the Similarity Check will be examined by the journal to establish whether it constitutes plagiarism or if there are legitimate reasons for the overlap.
Any allegations of plagiarism or self-plagiarism/text-recycling made to a journal will be investigated by the editor of the journal and Taylor & Francis, following COPE guidelines. If the allegations appear to be founded, we will then contact all named authors of the paper and request an explanation of the overlapping material. We may ask Editorial Board members and the author’s institution to assist in further evaluation of the paper and allegations.
The plagiarism of ideas can be the most difficult for a journal editor or publisher to be able to detect and validate. Investigations into this type of plagiarism will usually require the involvement of other parties, such as independent expert reviewers and/or institutions where the work was carried out.
Based on the investigation and reply from the author(s), the journal will decide how to proceed, using COPE flowcharts where applicable. This may result in the following actions being taken, depending on the nature and severity of the case:
*Please note that a correction can be published for minor similarities only where there is no misattribution or deliberate lack of attribution of work (e.g., to add in a missing full citation/ reference to the source material). A correction notice cannot be used to effectively ‘fix’ or rewrite the plagiarized sections.
When citing others’ (or your own) previous work, please ensure you have:
For more tips on avoiding plagiarism, we recommend: