Plagiarism Policy
Plagiarism and Similarity Policy
HERU: Health Empowerment and Research Universe is committed to maintaining the originality, integrity, and ethical quality of all published scholarly works. Submitted manuscripts may be screened using plagiarism-detection software before peer review and publication.
General Policy
Authors are responsible for ensuring that submitted manuscripts represent original scholarly work and that all sources, ideas, data, figures, tables, and previously published materials are appropriately acknowledged and cited.
HERU does not tolerate plagiarism, duplicate publication, inappropriate paraphrasing, self-plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, or other forms of academic misconduct.
Forms of Unacceptable Similarity
Copying text, ideas, data, or materials from another source without appropriate citation or acknowledgment.
Rewriting published material without adequate originality or proper citation.
Reusing substantial portions of previously published work without appropriate disclosure or citation.
Submitting or publishing substantially the same manuscript in more than one journal.
Creating false or fictitious research data, observations, or results.
Manipulating research materials, processes, images, or data in a misleading manner.
Similarity Screening
Submitted manuscripts may be screened using plagiarism-detection software such as Turnitin or other appropriate similarity-checking tools.
Editorial AssessmentSimilarity reports are evaluated contextually by the editorial team. A similarity percentage alone is not used as the sole basis for editorial decisions.
Excluded SimilaritiesReferences, commonly used scientific terminology, affiliations, standard methodological expressions, and properly cited quotations may contribute to similarity results and will be assessed appropriately.
Editorial Actions
Manuscripts with significant ethical concerns may be returned to authors for clarification, revision, or rejected before peer review.
If plagiarism or duplicate publication is identified during peer review, the editorial process may be suspended while the matter is investigated.
If significant plagiarism or misconduct is confirmed after publication, HERU may issue a correction, expression of concern, or retraction.
