Plagiarism Policy and Preprints

Plagiarism Policy

The International Journal of Contemporary Security Studies maintains a strict stance on academic honesty and adheres to the highest ethical standards in scholarly publishing. Every manuscript submitted undergoes plagiarism screening prior to peer review, using trusted and comprehensive detection tools.

What Constitutes Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is understood as any act of misappropriation of content, including but not limited to:

  • Reproducing text, visuals, datasets, or ideas from other works without proper acknowledgment

  • Reusing substantial segments of one’s previously published material without referencing (self-plagiarism)

  • Paraphrasing or summarizing others’ work without adequate citation

Editorial Handling of Detected Plagiarism

  • If plagiarism is discovered before publication, the editorial board may return the manuscript for revision or reject it outright, depending on the severity.

  • If plagiarism is found after publication, the article may be formally retracted, and appropriate action will be taken in line with COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) standards.

Detection System

All submissions are assessed using iThenticate, a leading tool that cross-references manuscripts against a wide range of academic, scientific, and online sources.

Authors are strongly urged to verify the originality of their manuscripts and ensure that all sources are fully cited before submission.

Preprints and Prior Dissemination

The International Journal of Contemporary Security Studies supports the early sharing of research and allows for the submission of manuscripts that have previously appeared as preprints—early versions of scholarly work made publicly available before formal peer review.

Acceptable Platforms for Preprints Include:

  • Recognized preprint repositories (e.g., SSRN, arXiv, Research Square)

  • Institutional archives

  • Authors’ personal or departmental web pages

  • Academic networking platforms (e.g., Academia.edu, ResearchGate)

Posting a preprint does not count as prior publication and will not affect editorial decisions, provided the following conditions are met:

  • The preprint is transparently cited in the submitted manuscript, including a working link to the original version

  • There are no major discrepancies in authorship or core content unless adequately explained

Following formal publication, authors are encouraged to update the preprint entry with a DOI and link to the final published article, while leaving the original version accessible for public reference.