Preventing Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement in Submissions

Academic journals play a crucial role in safeguarding the integrity of the scholarly record. A key aspect of this involves implementing measures to ensure that submitted manuscripts do not infringe upon intellectual property rights or breach copyright.

Establishing Clear Policies and Author Guidelines

One of the foundational steps is to establish and clearly communicate comprehensive policies to authors. Journals should develop guidelines for authors that provide clear expectations. These guidelines should be easily accessible, often on the journal's website. Key policies to include are:

Authorship and Contributorship: Define what constitutes authorship, drawing on standards such as the ICMJE criteria. Policies should specify the responsibilities of authors and the corresponding author. They should also detail how author contributions should be declared upon submission and in the final publication, how non-authors should be acknowledged, and how potential authorship disputes are managed. Journals should adopt policies that encourage appropriate authorship attribution and discourage questionable practices like guest or ghost authorship. Requiring authors to sign an authorship declaration can be beneficial.
Data and Intellectual Property: Clearly state policies regarding data and intellectual property. This includes copyright and publishing license arrangements. Policies should specify what constitutes plagiarism and redundant or overlapping publication. Authors should be informed about copyright procedures, publishing licenses (including Creative Commons licenses), and what versions of their work they are allowed to archive.
Research and Publication Ethics: Clearly outline policies on research and publication ethics, including conflicts of interest. Journals must adopt and publish clear guidelines regarding the ethical conduct of research. This includes ensuring submitted work conforms with ethical guidelines.

These policies should be detailed and visible on the journal's website, making it clear how the journal handles matters like authorship, complaints, appeals, research misconduct allegations, conflicts of interest, data sharing, ethical oversight, intellectual property, and post-publication corrections.

Implementing Submission and Pre-Publication Checks

Journals should implement processes to help identify ethical concerns early in the publication process. These processes can include:

Author Checklists: Incorporate a checklist in the submission system that authors must complete, confirming they have met key requirements. This checklist can include requiring authors to confirm they have read and understood the Instructions to Authors. It should also include confirmation that permission has been obtained for the use of copyrighted material from other sources, including online sources.
Plagiarism Checks: Routinely run plagiarism checks on submitted manuscripts. Verify revisions have adequately addressed any identified overlap.
Previous Submission Information: Require authors to provide information about previous submissions of the manuscript to other journals. Also, authors should confirm that the manuscript has been submitted solely to the current journal and is not published, in press, or submitted elsewhere.
Copyright and Permissions Verification: Confirm copyright permissions and ensure image references are correct. Ensure copyright compliance generally.
Content Review: Confirm the manuscript fits within the journal's scope and is relevant to readers. Check for pseudoscientific or controversial topics.

Engaging Peer Reviewers

Peer reviewers are a critical component of the quality control process and can assist in identifying potential ethical issues, including intellectual property concerns and misconduct. Reviewers should be asked to address ethical aspects of the submission, such as:

Has the author published this research before?
Has the author plagiarised another publication?
Is the research ethical and have appropriate approvals/consent been obtained?
Is there any indication that the data have been fabricated or inappropriately manipulated?
Have the authors declared all relevant competing interests?

Reviewers should respect the confidentiality of the material supplied to them and are explicitly instructed not to discuss unpublished manuscripts with colleagues or use the information in their own work. Journals should have systems in place to ensure peer reviewers' identities are protected unless an open review system is clearly declared. Instructions to reviewers should also specify if and how reviews might be edited and whether reviewers retain copyright to their comments. Journals have a duty to screen reviewer comments for potentially unethical content before sending them to authors.

Responding to Suspected Misconduct and Copyright Breach

As the editor, you are responsible for everything published and should take reasonable steps to ensure quality. This includes having procedures in place for handling allegations of misconduct and responding to complaints. Journals must take allegations seriously, whether pre-publication or post-publication. Key actions include:

Establishing a Process: Have a clearly described process for handling allegations, defining the types of misconduct and the policies and procedures for addressing them. Designate a contact person or a panel to handle ethics issues and initiate investigations. Document these processes, linking to relevant resources such as COPE Flowcharts.
Initial Steps: When concerns about plagiarism, data fabrication, or authorship disputes arise, the recommended initial step is usually to contact the author or reviewer concerned to ask for an explanation. Correspondence should state the facts clearly, provide evidence, and allow them a chance to explain their actions without making accusations.
Involving Institutions: In cases of suspected or alleged research or publication misconduct, journals are encouraged to first request a response from those suspected. If the response is unsatisfactory, or if there are strong suspicions authors might alter evidence, journals should ask the relevant employer or institution to investigate. Institutions are responsible for investigating research misconduct and applying sanctions. Journals should inform institutions if misconduct by their researchers is suspected and provide supporting evidence.
Authorship Disputes: Journals generally cannot adjudicate in authorship disputes. They rely on institutions to arbitrate these matters. Journals should respond to authorship adjudications from institutions and publish corrections as necessary. If an author's name is included against their wishes, they can inform the other authors and contact the journal post-publication to ask for a correction. If a name is wrongly omitted, the author should discuss with contributors; the journal may publish a correction if the omission was accidental and other authors agree.
Correcting the Record: Journals are responsible for safeguarding the research record. If an institutional investigation or assessment reveals findings that impact the reliability or attribution of published work (e.g., error, fraud, ethical breaches), the institution should inform the journal. Journals should be ready to publish changes to published articles, such as corrections, expressions of concern, addenda, or retractions, based on findings from institutional investigations. Prompt retraction of a seriously flawed article is a responsible action to safeguard the academic record and should not be seen as a failure. Retraction is not appropriate solely for authorship disputes if the findings' validity is not in doubt; a correction can be published instead. Legal advice may be helpful to word retraction notices based on proven facts to avoid defamation concerns.
Cooperation: Cooperation between research institutions and journals on cases of research integrity is essential. Institutions should inform journals about findings related to reliability or attribution of published work and provide relevant summaries or sections of reports, where permitted, to help journals correct the published record. Journals should cooperate with investigations and respond promptly to institutional questions. If concerns involve multiple journals (e.g., plagiarism, redundant publication), editors should cooperate and share information.

By implementing these policies and processes, academic journals can significantly contribute to preventing and addressing intellectual property theft and copyright breaches, thereby maintaining the integrity of scholarly publishing.