Plagiarism is understood as any misappropriation, misuse, or substantial verbatim copying of another person's work presented as one’s own. Self-plagiarism, referring to the publication of previous work as if it were new research, is also considered plagiarism.

Accadere applies a rigorous procedure to ensure the originality of the manuscripts received and to prevent any form of plagiarism.

The procedure is divided into two phases:

Phase One, managed by the Editorial Team, reserves the right to use the Turnitin service to detect any form of plagiarism or self-plagiarism. The procedure is as follows:

1. The Editorial Team will submit the manuscript to Turnitin analysis before sending it to the double blind peer review stage.

2. If plagiarism is detected, following the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines, its nature and extent will be assessed to make a decision regarding the manuscript.

3. In cases of serious plagiarism, meaning long passages copied verbatim, the author will be informed of the rejection of the article and the prohibition to submit another manuscript to Accadere for 12 months.

4. If the report shows short copied phrases without evidence of appropriating extended ideas, the author will be contacted and requested to resubmit the document with correct citation, naming the original author and incorporating the reference in the bibliography.

5. Once the new version is received, the Editorial Team will submit it again to Turnitin. If no plagiarism is detected, the article moves to the review phase; if plagiarism persists, the article will be rejected, and the author may not submit another manuscript for 12 months.

Phase Two:

– During the peer review process, reviewers may use Turnitin or other open-access tools.
– If plagiarism is detected, reviewers must report it clearly.
– Upon receiving a supported report of plagiarism, the Editorial Team will proceed as outlined in points 3, 4, and 5 above.
– The Editorial Team will accept only two (2) self-citations of the author within the manuscript.
– If more than two (2) self-citations are detected, the author will be informed and must submit a corrected version within 10 working days. After this period, the manuscript is considered withdrawn.