Plagiarism Policy

The Shifa Scientific-Research Journal is firmly committed to upholding the highest standards of academic integrity, scholarly honesty, and research ethics. Any form of plagiarism shall be regarded as a serious breach of the Journal’s ethical principles. Accordingly, in cases where academic misconduct is identified—including, but not limited to, the unauthorized use of another person’s work without proper attribution, data fabrication or falsification, or duplicate publication—the Journal shall take appropriate action in accordance with Articles 15–20 and Article 62 of the Shifa Scientific Journal Code of Publication Ethics, approved by the Scientific Council of Shifa University on 13/09/1402 (Solar Hijri Calendar).

Definitions

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is defined as the presentation, appropriation, or use of another person’s ideas, concepts, words, findings, data, or scholarly achievements as one’s own without obtaining permission, providing proper acknowledgment, or citing the original source accurately and appropriately. Plagiarism is deemed unethical regardless of whether it is committed intentionally or unintentionally.

Self-Plagiarism

Self-plagiarism refers to the reuse of an author’s own previously published work, data, ideas, or textual material in a new manuscript without proper citation of the original publication. This includes submitting an entire previously published work, or a substantial portion thereof, for publication again, or incorporating previously published material into a new manuscript without appropriate reference.

The Journal considers, but is not limited to, the following practices as plagiarism or academic misconduct:

• Using material from another author’s work or from one’s own previously published work without appropriate citation.

• Publishing or attempting to publish substantially the same manuscript in more than one journal, whether in the form of duplicate or redundant publication.

• Misappropriating another person’s published or unpublished work, or reusing one’s own previous publications, in whole or in part, without proper acknowledgment.

• Stealing or misappropriating the original ideas, concepts, hypotheses, or intellectual contributions of other researchers in any form.

Journal Policy

Manuscripts submitted to the Journal must be free from plagiarism, data falsification, fabrication, manipulation, and the omission of essential information. Whenever authors use material derived from the work of others or from their own previously published work—even when the wording has been paraphrased rather than copied verbatim—they must cite the original source appropriately. This requirement applies equally to published, in-press, unpublished, and electronically available materials. Plagiarism in any form, whether intentional or unintentional, involving an entire manuscript or any part thereof, is considered unacceptable and constitutes academic misconduct.

Self-plagiarism is likewise regarded as an unethical academic practice equivalent to other forms of plagiarism. It may occur in several ways, including:

• Reusing portions of previously published manuscripts with little or no modification, without citing the original publication.

• Submitting multiple manuscripts with substantial overlap in content to different journals without appropriate cross-referencing or disclosure.

Such practices, whether deliberate or inadvertent, constitute unethical scholarly conduct and are regarded as forms of plagiarism.

Authors are expected to minimize self-citation and avoid excessive citation of their own work solely for the purpose of artificially increasing citation metrics (citation inflation). When self-citation is scientifically necessary and unavoidable, authors should disclose this to the Editorial Office at the time of manuscript submission. Furthermore, self-citations should be presented in a manner that does not compromise the integrity of the Journal’s double-blind peer-review process.

If an exact sentence, paragraph, or any other verbatim material from another source—or from the author’s own previously published work—is reproduced, it must be enclosed in quotation marks and accompanied by a complete and accurate citation of the original source.

Similarity Index

In accordance with international publication ethics standards and the Journal’s internal editorial policy, the maximum acceptable Similarity Index for submitted manuscripts is 15–20%. Manuscripts with a similarity index exceeding this threshold will not be considered for peer review or publication unless the identified overlaps are satisfactorily corrected and all ethical concerns have been resolved.

The Shifa Scientific-Research Journal remains committed to safeguarding the integrity of scientific research and preserving the credibility of the academic community through impartial, transparent, fair, and ethically responsible editorial practices.