Plagiarism Prevention Policy

Global Virology Reports (GVR) is committed to upholding the highest standards of academic integrity. Plagiarism, in any form, constitutes a serious breach of publication ethics and is unacceptable. To ensure originality, all submitted manuscripts are screened using advanced, industry-standard plagiarism detection software (such as iThenticate) prior to peer review.

Definition and Scope
Plagiarism is defined as the unauthorized use of another person's ideas, processes, text, or results without appropriate credit. This policy explicitly addresses:

·       Verbatim Plagiarism: The direct copying of text without quotation marks and citation.

·       Mosaic Plagiarism (Patchwriting): The act of borrowing phrases from a source and weaving them into one's own text without proper attribution, even if the source is cited.

·       Self-Plagiarism (Text Recycling): The significant reuse of an author's own previously published work without transparent citation or justification. This includes redundant or duplicate publication.

Screening and Acceptable Similarity
Upon submission, every manuscript undergoes a similarity check. The resulting similarity report is interpreted by the editorial team with a focus on the nature and context of the matches.

·       Generally Acceptable: Similarity confined to correctly cited quotations, generic phrases, standard methodological descriptions, and the reference list.

·       Subject to Scrutiny: A low overall similarity percentage with problematic, concentrated matches in the introduction, results, or discussion sections.

·       Unacceptable: Any instance of uncited text, data, or ideas from another source, or significant, uncited reuse of an author's own prior work.

Author Responsibilities
Authors are required to:

·       Ensure their work is entirely original.

·       Use quotation marks for any verbatim text and cite the original source.

·       Paraphrase appropriately, which requires complete rewording and restructuring of the original idea, followed by a citation.

·       Disclose and cite their own prior publications that overlap with the current submission.

·       Obtain permission for the reuse of copyrighted figures or tables.

Editorial Actions
Based on the screening outcome, the editorial team will take one of the following actions:

·       Proceed to Review: If the similarity is deemed acceptable and within standard academic practice.

·       Request Revision: For minor issues, such as improperly paraphrased text or missing citations, the authors will be asked to revise and properly attribute the content.

·       Immediate Rejection: In cases of significant verbatim plagiarism, mosaic plagiarism, self-plagiarism, or any other form of academic dishonesty. The decision may be accompanied by a ban on future submissions.

·       Formal Investigation: For severe cases, the incident will be handled according to COPE guidelines, which may include notifying the authors' institution.