Screening for Plagiarism

USWAH: Journal of Sustainable Development Goals in Education is committed to maintaining the integrity of scholarly publishing and ensuring that all published articles are original works.

All manuscripts submitted to the journal are screened for plagiarism using plagiarism detection software such as Turnitin or iThenticate before they proceed to the peer review process.

The editorial team evaluates the similarity report carefully to determine whether any overlap constitutes acceptable citation, minor similarity, or potential plagiarism.

Similarity Threshold

• Manuscripts with a similarity index below 20% may proceed to the editorial evaluation and peer review process.

• Manuscripts with a similarity index between 20–30% may be returned to the authors for revision and improvement of citations.

• Manuscripts with a similarity index above 30% may be rejected due to excessive similarity.

Types of Unacceptable Similarity

The journal strictly prohibits the following practices:

• Plagiarism – using another author's ideas, data, or words without proper citation.

• Self-plagiarism – reusing significant portions of one's previously published work without proper acknowledgment.

• Duplicate publication – submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals simultaneously.

• Data fabrication or falsification.

If plagiarism or unethical behavior is detected at any stage of the publication process, the manuscript will be rejected. If the article has already been published, the journal may issue a correction, retraction, or removal of the article in accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines.