Statement and Policy
The Journal of Law does not tolerate plagiarism. All submitted manuscripts must be original, must not have been published previously, and must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere.
Authors must clearly acknowledge all sources used in their manuscripts. Direct quotations must be distinguished from the author’s own text through quotation marks or block quotation formatting, as appropriate, and accompanied by accurate citations. Paraphrased ideas must also be properly cited. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted material where required and for acknowledging its source.
Similarity Level
All submitted manuscripts are screened using Turnitin. Similarity reports are assessed by the Editorial Office to distinguish legitimate textual overlap from potential plagiarism. A similarity index alone does not establish the presence or absence of plagiarism.
The following procedures apply:
- Similarity index above 40%: The manuscript is rejected, and resubmission is not permitted.
- Similarity index from 20% to 40%, inclusive: The manuscript is returned to the author for revision. Authors must address inappropriate textual overlap, provide any missing citations, and properly paraphrase source material where necessary, even if the source is already cited. The revised manuscript must be resubmitted with a Turnitin report showing a similarity index below 15%.
- Similarity index below 20%: The manuscript meets the similarity requirement and may proceed to the next stage of evaluation. This does not constitute acceptance for publication or guarantee the absence of plagiarism.
Any suspected plagiarism is assessed separately, regardless of the similarity index, and may result in rejection of the manuscript.
