Plagiarism Policy

Mitra Teras: Jurnal Terapan Pengabdian Masyarakat does not accept plagiarism in any form. All manuscripts are checked for similarity before peer review. This policy follows the guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

1. What Is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is using the words, ideas, data, images, or work of others without proper citation. It includes:

  • Direct plagiarism: copying text from another source word for word without quotation marks and citation.
  • Paraphrasing without citation: rewriting the ideas of others in different words without citing the source.
  • Self-plagiarism (text recycling): reusing large parts of the authors' own published work without citation.
  • Duplicate publication: publishing the same program results in more than one journal.
  • Use of images, figures, or data from other sources without permission or citation.
  • Translation plagiarism: translating work from another language and presenting it as original.

2. Prior Reports and Theses

  • Community engagement reports submitted to a funder or institution (for example, LPPM reports), undergraduate theses, and conference presentations without full papers are not considered prior publication. Authors should mention them in the cover letter.
  • If the work was published in conference proceedings or another journal, the manuscript must be substantially new and must cite the earlier publication. The editor will decide whether the new manuscript makes a new contribution.

3. Similarity Check Before Review

The editorial team checks every submitted manuscript using Turnitin. References, properly quoted text, and small matches are excluded from the similarity score. The editor also reads the report to see where the similarity comes from, not only the total score.

Similarity score Action
12% or less The manuscript continues to peer review, as long as no single source has a large match.
13% to 25% The manuscript is returned to the authors with the similarity report. The authors must revise and resubmit before peer review.
More than 25% The manuscript is rejected. The authors may submit a new, fully revised manuscript.

If clear plagiarism is found, such as copied paragraphs or copied results from another article, the manuscript is rejected regardless of the score. The manuscript is checked again before publication.

4. Plagiarism Found After Publication

If plagiarism is found in a published article, the journal will follow the COPE flowcharts:

  1. The editor checks the evidence and the similarity report.
  2. The editor contacts the corresponding author and asks for an explanation.
  3. If needed, the editor contacts the authors' institution.
  4. Depending on how serious the case is, the journal will publish a correction or an expression of concern, or retract the article. See our Retraction and Correction policy.

Serious cases are handled under our Allegation of Research Misconduct policy. Authors involved in plagiarism may be banned from submitting to the journal for up to three years.

5. Reporting Plagiarism

Anyone who suspects plagiarism in a submitted or published article can contact the Chief Editor at mawaidi@uny.ac.id or the journal at mitrateras@mjipublisher.com. Please include the article title and the source that you believe was copied.