Plagiarism Policy

HEXAGRO does not tolerate plagiarism in any form. Every submitted manuscript is checked with Turnitin before it is sent for peer review, and again before publication. The maximum accepted overall similarity index is 20%, with no more than 3% from any single source, excluding the reference list and quoted material.

Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:

  • copying text, data, figures, or ideas from other works without proper citation;
  • self-plagiarism, including reusing substantial parts of the authors' own published work without citation;
  • duplicate or redundant publication, or submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time;
  • translating another work into English and presenting it as original.

Actions taken:

  1. Before review: manuscripts above 20% similarity are returned to the authors for revision or rejected, depending on the extent.
  2. During review: if plagiarism is found by a reviewer or editor, the review is stopped and the manuscript is rejected.
  3. After publication: the article is investigated following the COPE flowcharts and may be corrected or retracted (see the Retraction Policy). The authors' institution may be informed.

The similarity report is stored in the journal system as part of the editorial record.