Journal of Stability Studies and Public Policy (JSSPP) is committed to maintaining high standards of academic integrity, originality, and responsible scholarly practice. To protect the credibility of the academic record, all submitted manuscripts undergo a similarity screening process before external peer review.

Manuscripts submitted to JSSPP are screened using appropriate plagiarism detection software to identify substantial textual overlap with published articles, books, websites, repositories, and other academic sources. Similarity screening forms part of the journal’s initial editorial assessment and is intended to identify manuscripts that require further examination before proceeding to peer review.

For the purposes of this policy, plagiarism refers to presenting another person’s words, ideas, data, findings, images, or other intellectual contributions as one’s own without appropriate acknowledgment. This may include direct plagiarism, mosaic or patchwriting, inappropriate paraphrasing, self-plagiarism, redundant publication, and other forms of unattributed reuse.

JSSPP uses a similarity threshold as an editorial screening indicator. A similarity index of approximately 20% or higher, excluding references and other legitimate sources of overlap where applicable, may trigger further editorial examination. The similarity percentage is not, however, treated as a definitive measure of plagiarism. Editorial decisions are based on the nature, location, extent, and context of the identified similarities.

Legitimate similarities, including commonly used terminology, standard methodological descriptions, technical expressions, properly quoted and cited material, titles, references, and other unavoidable textual overlap, may be considered acceptable. Conversely, substantial unattributed similarity may constitute a violation of the journal’s academic integrity standards even when the overall similarity percentage is below the indicative threshold.

Where substantial plagiarism or other forms of academic misconduct are identified before peer review, the manuscript may be returned to the authors for clarification or correction or may be rejected by the editorial team, depending on the nature and severity of the concern. Authors may be asked to provide an explanation or revise the manuscript where the issue is considered remediable.

If plagiarism, duplicate publication, or other forms of academic misconduct are identified during peer review or after publication, JSSPP may take appropriate action in accordance with its Publication Ethics and Academic Integrity policy. Such actions may include rejection, withdrawal of a manuscript from the review or publication process, publication of a correction or expression of concern, retraction of a published article, or notification of the relevant institution or other appropriate parties where necessary.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their manuscripts are original and that all sources, ideas, data, figures, and other materials derived from third parties are appropriately acknowledged and cited. Authors are also responsible for obtaining permission where the use of copyrighted third-party material requires permission.

By submitting a manuscript to JSSPP, authors confirm that the work has been prepared in accordance with accepted standards of academic integrity and responsible scholarly practice.

JSSPP is committed to applying this policy consistently, fairly, and transparently while protecting both the integrity of the scholarly record and the rights of authors.