Plagiarism Policy

The Editorial Board of Disaster Mitigation and Engineering Systems Joint Design (DMESJD) recognizes that plagiarism is unacceptable and therefore establishes the following policy stating specific actions (penalties) when plagiarism is identified in an article submitted for publication in DMESJD.

Definition

Plagiarism involves the use or close imitation of the language, ideas, or thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work.

Policy

Manuscripts submitted to DMESJD must be original, unpublished, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Any material taken verbatim from another source must be clearly identified as different from the present original text by:

Indentation;
Use of quotation marks; and
Proper identification of the source (full citation).

Any text exceeding fair use standards (here defined as more than two or three sentences or the equivalent thereof), or any graphic material reproduced from another source, requires permission from the copyright holder and, if feasible, the original author(s), and must clearly indicate the source (e.g., previous publication).

When plagiarism is identified, the Editor-in-Chief responsible for the review of the paper will determine appropriate measures according to the extent of plagiarism, in line with the following guidelines:

Levels of Plagiarism and Actions

1. Minor Plagiarism
A short section of another article is plagiarized without any significant data or idea taken from the other paper.

Action:
A warning is given to the authors and a request is made to revise the text and properly cite the original source.

2. Intermediate Plagiarism
A significant portion of the paper is plagiarized without proper citation to the original work.

Action:
The submitted article is rejected, and the authors are forbidden to submit further articles to DMESJD for one (1) year.

3. Severe Plagiarism
A significant portion of the paper is plagiarized, involving the reproduction of original results or ideas presented in another publication.

Action:
The paper is rejected, and the authors are forbidden to submit further articles to DMESJD for five (5) years.

It is understood that all authors are responsible for the content of their submitted paper, as they sign the DMESJD Author Declaration / Copyright & License Agreement. If a penalty is imposed for plagiarism, all listed authors will be subject to the same penalty.

If a second case of plagiarism by the same author(s) is identified, the Editorial Board (Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Members) will decide on the appropriate measures. The author(s) may be permanently banned from submitting to DMESJD.

Self-Plagiarism and Overlap with Other Publications

This policy also applies to material reproduced from another publication by the same author(s).

If an author uses text or figures that have previously been published, the corresponding paragraphs or figures must be clearly identified, and the previous publication must be cited.
In review papers or tutorial papers, it is understood that much of the material may have been previously published. Even so, the sources must be clearly acknowledged.

If an author submits a manuscript to DMESJD with significant overlap with a manuscript submitted to another journal simultaneously, and this overlap is discovered during the review process or after publication in both journals, the editor of the other journal may be notified, and the case will be treated as severe plagiarism.

Significant overlap is defined as the use of identical or almost identical figures and identical or slightly modified text for one half or more of the paper.
For self-plagiarism involving more than one tenth but less than one half of the paper, the case will be treated as intermediate plagiarism.
If self-plagiarism is confined only to the methods section, the case may be considered minor plagiarism.

If an author uses some of their previously published material to clarify the presentation of new results, the previously published material must be identified, and the difference from the present publication must be clearly stated. Permission to reuse such material must be obtained from the copyright holder, where applicable.

In the case of a manuscript that was originally published in conference proceedings and is then submitted to DMESJD in identical or expanded form:

The authors must identify the name of the conference, the proceedings, and the date of publication.
Permission to republish must be obtained from the copyright holder.
The editor may decide not to accept such a paper for publication.

An author is permitted to use material from unpublished presentations, including visual displays, in a subsequent journal publication.

In the case of a manuscript originally published in another language and then submitted to DMESJD:

The title, date, and journal of the original publication must be identified.
The necessary copyright permissions must be obtained.
The editor may accept such a translated publication to bring it to a wider audience, provided that this is clearly stated.

The editor may also select a specific paper that has been previously published (e.g. a “historic” paper) for republication in order to provide better perspective in a special issue. Such republication will be clearly identified as such, with full credit to the original source and with the permission of the author(s) and publisher.

Administrative Responsibilities

The Editorial Office / Managing Editor of DMESJD is responsible for maintaining a list of authors who have been subjected to plagiarism-related penalties and will check that no authors of a newly submitted manuscript are on this list. If a banned author is identified, the Managing Editor will inform the Editor-in-Chief, who will take appropriate action.

This policy will be posted on the journal website along with the Instructions for Authors, and a link or statement referring to the Plagiarism Policy will be included in the correspondence sent to authors upon initial receipt of their manuscript. A statement will also be added to the Author Agreement Form indicating that the author(s) have read and agreed to the DMESJD Plagiarism Policy.