Plagiarism

Plagiarism encompasses the unacknowledged use of published or unpublished ideas, data, text, images, or other intellectual material belonging to others, as well as the submission of a complete or substantial work under new authorship, including translations. Plagiarism may occur at any stage of research planning, conduct, writing, or publication and applies equally to print and electronic formats. All sources must be appropriately cited. Where substantial portions of text, figures, tables, or illustrative material from other works are used, authors are responsible for obtaining the necessary permissions from copyright holders prior to submission.

Authors’ Responsibilities

The Nigerian Journal of Orthopaedics and Trauma (NJOT) does not tolerate plagiarism in any form. Authors are responsible for ensuring that their submissions are original, properly referenced, and compliant with accepted scholarly standards prior to submission.

Authors are strongly encouraged to familiarise themselves with good citation and referencing practices and to take reasonable steps to avoid inadvertent plagiarism, including inappropriate paraphrasing or insufficient attribution. Educational resources on plagiarism, citation, and academic integrity are widely available and may be consulted by authors as part of manuscript preparation.

Assessment of Similarity and Editorial Evaluation

Submitted manuscripts may be screened for text overlap using similarity-checking tools as part of the editorial assessment process. Similarity scores are interpreted qualitatively as well as quantitatively, recognising that legitimate overlap may occur in sections such as methods, references, or standard descriptions.

As general guidance:

  • A similarity index of up to 12% is typically considered acceptable.

  • Manuscripts with a similarity index between 13% and 30% may be returned to authors for revision and clarification, with a request to reduce inappropriate overlap.

  • Manuscripts demonstrating substantial unattributed overlap, plagiarism of ideas or data, or evidence of duplicate or redundant publication may be rejected outright or subjected to further investigation.

The similarity index alone does not determine misconduct. Editorial judgement is applied in all cases, taking into account the nature, location, and context of overlapping material.

Handling of Suspected Plagiarism

In cases of suspected plagiarism, NJOT follows the procedures and recommendations outlined in the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) flowcharts for plagiarism and redundant publication. These procedures apply both to manuscripts under consideration and to articles already published.

Where plagiarism is confirmed, editorial actions may include manuscript rejection, correction, retraction, notification of authors’ institutions, or other measures deemed appropriate in accordance with COPE guidance.

COPE plagiarism flowcharts are available at: https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts-new/what-do-if-you-suspect-plagiarism