Plagiarism and AI Content Policy

Plagiarism includes copying another person’s ideas, text, data or creative work—including tables, figures and graphs—and presenting it as original research without proper acknowledgement or citation. The journal expects manuscripts to be original and free from plagiarism.

Author Declaration

By submitting a manuscript, the author(s) confirm that:

1. They understand that plagiarism is contrary to professional and publication ethics.
2. No copyrighted material has been used without permission or proper acknowledgement.
3. The manuscript is original, free from plagiarism and has not been published previously.
4. They accept full responsibility for the opinions expressed and for resolving disputes arising from unauthorised use of copyrighted material.

Action on Suspected Plagiarism

If plagiarism is suspected at any stage, including after publication, the author will be required to provide clarification within one week. In the absence of a reasonable and timely explanation, the manuscript may be rejected or removed from the journal system, and further submissions from the same author may not be considered.

Artificial Intelligence Content Policy

• Artificial Intelligence tools cannot be listed or credited as an author because they cannot assume responsibility or accountability for the published work.
• Authors must not submit manuscripts, sections, arguments or conclusions generated substantially by AI as their own original academic work.
• AI must not be used to fabricate, manipulate or misrepresent data, results, images, citations, references or scholarly evidence.
• Every citation and reference must be personally checked by the authors for accuracy, relevance and existence.
• Limited use of language-support tools for spelling, grammar or readability does not remove the authors’ responsibility for the accuracy, originality and integrity of the manuscript.
• Any material use of an AI-assisted tool in research, analysis, image creation or manuscript preparation must be transparently disclosed to the editor and described in the manuscript where appropriate.
• Authors remain fully responsible for all submitted content, including errors, bias, plagiarism, copyright infringement or ethical violations arising from AI-assisted work.

Editorial Action on Undisclosed AI Content

Where undisclosed AI-generated content, fabricated references, manipulated data or misleading AI-assisted material is identified, the journal may request an explanation or revision, reject the manuscript, withdraw acceptance, or retract/remove a published article depending on the seriousness of the violation.