Plagiarism and Similarity Check Policy

The International Research Journal of Social Sciences (IRJOSS) strictly follows the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan’s plagiarism policy (2022) and COPE ethical guidelines to ensure the originality and authenticity of all published work.

Screening Procedure

• All submitted manuscripts are screened for similarity using Turnitin or iThenticate software prior to the peer review stage.
• The similarity report is generated and reviewed by the Managing Editor and Editor- in-Chief before proceeding further.
• Only manuscripts with an acceptable similarity index (≤17%) are considered for peer review.

Similarity Index Thresholds

Similarity Range	Editorial Action
0–17%	Acceptable and proceeds to review.
18–30%	Returned to author for revision and resubmission with justification.
Above 30%	Rejected immediately; author notified with official report.

Exclusions in Similarity Report

• References, bibliography, quoted material, and standard methodology descriptions are excluded when calculating the similarity index.

Actions on Plagiarism

• Any manuscript found plagiarized will be rejected
• If plagiarism is discovered after publication, the article will be retracted, and an official notice will be issued on the journal’s website.
• The author’s institution and HEC will be notified as per HEC’s “Plagiarism Policy ”
• Repeat offenders will be blacklisted from future

Ethical Responsibility

• Authors are responsible for submitting original and properly cited
• Editors and reviewers are responsible for detecting potential duplication and reporting it to the Editor-in-Chief.
• The journal follows COPE flowcharts for investigating plagiarism, duplicate submissions, and unethical practices.