This page states what QAIRU Journal treats as plagiarism, when and how every submission is screened for textual similarity, and what follows when overlap is found.
QAIRU Journal publishes work that is the authors' own and that credits every source it rests on. Plagiarism is the presentation of another person's words, ideas, data or output as one's own. It is assessed on what appears in the manuscript, not on intent, although intent is weighed when the response of the journal is decided. This policy follows the COPE Core Practices and the COPE flowcharts. Related pages: Publication Ethics, Author Guidelines, Corrections, Retractions and Expressions of Concern.
Every submission is screened for textual similarity twice:
Screening uses a licensed similarity-detection service covering international databases of journals, conference proceedings, theses and web sources.
The journal does not apply a single automatic threshold, and no manuscript is rejected on a percentage alone. A high score often comes from correctly quoted material, standard methods wording, instrument names, equation text or the reference list; a low score can still conceal the appropriation of an idea or a result expressed in new words. A percentage locates text for a human to read; it does not decide anything.
An editor reads every flagged match in its context in both the manuscript and the source, and asks three questions: is the material attributed; is the amount of reuse proportionate to what is being reported; and does the reuse concern words alone or also ideas and results.
The practical guidance the editors follow is this: a similarity index above roughly 20 per cent overall, or any single source contributing more than roughly 5 per cent, is examined by hand. These are working triggers for reading, not thresholds for a decision.
| When the overlap is found | What the journal does |
|---|---|
| Minor unattributed overlap, before review | Returned to the authors with the flagged passages, for quotation, citation or rewriting; the revised manuscript is rescreened and then proceeds |
| Substantial overlap, before review | Desk rejection, with the flagged passages stated |
| Plagiarism established during review | Rejection; where the extent or the nature of the reuse warrants it, the authors' institution is notified |
| Plagiarism established after publication | Retraction under the COPE retraction guidelines and notification of the institution; see Corrections, Retractions and Expressions of Concern |
No decision on plagiarism is taken before the authors have been shown the specific passages and the identified sources and have had the opportunity to reply, in writing, within a stated period. The reply is considered by an editor with no conflict of interest in the manuscript. Where a manuscript has more than one author, the correspondence goes to the corresponding author, who is expected to inform the co-authors.
Reuse of the authors' own previously published text is permitted only where it is disclosed and attributed:
Republication of the same findings in a second venue without disclosure is duplicate publication and is handled as such, not as a matter of wording.
Posting a preprint or publishing a conference abstract is not plagiarism and does not preclude submission, provided the fact is disclosed in the cover letter with the identifier or DOI. Overlap with the authors' own preprint or abstract is expected and is discounted during screening. An undisclosed preprint that surfaces in the similarity report is treated as a failure of disclosure, and the authors are asked to explain before any further step is taken.
Similarity reports are retained in the editorial archive with the manuscript file, including for rejected submissions, so that a later question about a manuscript can be answered from the record. Reports are not shared with reviewers and are not published.
Send concerns in writing to journal@qairu.edu.kz. Include the title or the DOI of the article in question, the source you believe was used, and the specific passages, figures or data in both. Anonymous reports are assessed on the evidence they contain. The journal does not disclose the identity of a person who raises a concern to the authors, and it assesses the concern on the material, not on who submitted it.
Effective date: 2026-09-01 · Version: 1.0 · Questions: journal@qairu.edu.kz