Screening for Plagiarism

Journal Mestro guarantees the authenticity of every manuscript it publishes, in print or electronic form, while upholding the rights of authors. Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable.

Screening

Every submitted manuscript is checked for similarity using Turnitin during initial screening, before it is sent to reviewers, and again before publication when substantial revisions have been made. The similarity report is evaluated by the editor; manuscripts with an unacceptable level of overlap are returned to the authors or declined.

Forms of Plagiarism

• Copying text, data, figures, or ideas from other sources without proper citation.
• Self-plagiarism: reusing substantial parts of the authors' own published work without citation.
• Duplicate publication: submitting a manuscript that has already been published or is under review elsewhere.
• Paraphrasing another work so closely that it misrepresents authorship.

Consequences

• Before publication: the manuscript is returned for revision or rejected, depending on severity.
• After publication: the article is corrected or retracted, and in cases of duplicate publication it is withdrawn by the editorial board (see Correction, Retraction, and Withdrawal Policy).

Authors are encouraged to check their manuscripts with a similarity tool and a reference manager such as Mendeley before submission.