Dealing with allegations of misconduct

Social Sciences Journal adheres to the Committee for Publication Ethics (COPE) Guidelines regarding misconduct and retractions. We take ethical allegations very seriously and believe it is our responsibility to maintain the integrity of the scientific record as far as possible.

Our relationship with our authors is based on trust and we publish submitted material in good faith. However, if a possible breach of ethics is brought to our attention, we will refer the case to our Fact Finding Committee. The Committee includes representation from our legal department, as well as senior management and editorial staff. The Committee may seek advice from the journal’s Editorial Board, and may need to escalate an investigation to author’s institution(s) for further information. The Committee will decide the most appropriate course of action to take according to industry guidelines and advise on any corrections (including retractions) that may be required to the published record.
  Please note:

• Misconduct investigations are sensitive and can take time
• Social Sciences Journal have the right to contact an individual’s institution regarding allegations of misconduct, according to the COPE Guidelines
• Social Sciences Journal reserves the right not to work with anyone who is abusive to our staff, authors, reviewers or editors

To report any concerns relating to potential misconduct, please contact the editorial office for Social Sciences Journal. You can find contact information here. We follow the COPE guidelines on responding to whistleblowers, which includes protecting your anonymity.

 

---

Plagiarism policy

1. What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is the unethical act of copying someone else’s prior ideas, processes, results or words without explicit acknowledgement of the original author and source. Self-plagiarism occurs when an author utilizes large part of his/her own previously published work without using appropriate references. This can range from getting the same manuscript published in multiple journals to modifying a previously published manuscript with some new data.

Social Sciences journal is strictly against any unethical act of copying or plagiarism in any form. Plagiarism is said to have occurred when large portions of a manuscript have been copied from existing previously published resources. All manuscripts submitted for publication to our Journal are cross-checked for plagiarism.

2. Types of Plagiarism policy

The following types of plagiarism are considered by Social Sciences Journal:

2.1. Full Plagiarism

Previously published content without any changes to the text, idea and grammar is considered as full plagiarism. It involves presenting exact text from a source as one’s own.

2.2. Partial Plagiarism

If content is a mixture from multiple different sources, where the author has extensively rephrased text, then it is known as partial plagiarism.

2.3. Self-Plagiarism

When an author reuses complete or portions of their pre-published research, then it is known as self-plagiarism. Complete self-plagiarism is a case when an author republishes their own previously published work in a new journal.

3. Policy and Action for Plagiarism

Social Sciences Journal respects intellectual property and aims at protecting and promoting original work of its authors. Manuscripts containing plagiarized material are against the standards of quality, research and innovation. Hence, all authors submitting articles to Social Sciences Journal are expected to abide ethical standards and abstain from plagiarism, in any form.

In case, an author is found to be suspected of plagiarism in a submitted or published manuscript then, Social Sciences Journal shall contact the author(s) to submit his/her (their) explanation within two weeks. If Social Sciences Journal does not receive any response from the author within the stipulated time period, then the Director / Dean / Head of the concerned College, Institution or Organization or the Vice Chancellor of the University to which the author is affiliated shall be contacted to take strict action against the concerned author.

Social Sciences Journal shall take serious action against published manuscripts found to contain plagiarism and shall be remove them completely from our Journal website and other third party websites where the paper is listed and indexed. The moment, any article published in Social Sciences Journal database is reported to be plagiarized, our Journal will constitute a Fact Finding Committee to investigate the same. Upon having established that the manuscript is plagiarized from some previously published work, Social Sciences Journal shall support the original author and manuscript irrespective of the publisher and may take any or all of the following immediate actions or follow the additional course of actions as recommended by the committee:

• Manuscripts found to be plagiarized during initial stages of review are out-rightly rejected and not considered for publication in the journal, and Social Sciences Journal editorial office shall immediately contact the Director / Dean / Head of the concerned College, Institution or Organization or the Vice Chancellor of the University to which the author(s) is (are) affiliated to take strict action against the concerned author.
• In case a manuscript is found to be plagiarized after publication, the Editor-in-Chief will conduct preliminary investigation, may be with the help of a suitable committee constituted for the purpose. If the manuscript is found to be plagiarized beyond the acceptable limits, our journal will contact the author’s Institute / College / University and Funding Agency, if any. A determination of misconduct will lead Social Sciences Journal to run a statement bidirectionally linked online to and from the original paper, to note the plagiarism and provide a reference to the plagiarized material. The paper containing the plagiarism will also be marked on each page of the PDF. Upon determination of the extent of plagiarism, the paper may also be formally retracted.
• Social Sciences Journal shall remove the PDF copy of the published manuscript from the website and disable all links to full text article. The term Plagiarized Manuscript shall be appended to the published manuscript title.
• Social Sciences Journal shall disable the author account with the journal and reject all future submissions from the author for a period from 3 to 10 years or even ban the authors permanently.
• Social Sciences Journal may also display the list of such authors along with their full contact details on our Journal website.

Any other course of action, as recommended by the Committee or as deemed fit for the instant case or as decided by the Editorial Board, from time to time.