Plagiarism Policy

The International Journal of Didactic Mathematics in Distance Education (IJDMDE) applies a zero-tolerance policy towards plagiarism and is firmly committed to ensuring the originality and integrity of all published content. In accordance with this commitment, IJDMDE has established the following policy outlining specific actions and penalties when plagiarism is identified in any manuscript submitted for publication.

Plagiarism is defined as the use or close imitation of the language, ideas, or thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work, without proper acknowledgment of the original source. This includes, but is not limited to, copying text verbatim, paraphrasing without attribution, and self-plagiarism (the reuse of one's own previously published work without disclosure).

All manuscripts submitted to IJDMDE must be original, unpublished, and not currently under review or pending publication in any other journal or outlet. Any material taken verbatim from another source must be clearly distinguished from the author's own original text by: (1) indentation, (2) the use of quotation marks, and (3) explicit identification of the original source with a proper citation.

Plagiarism Detection

IJDMDE uses Turnitin to evaluate the similarity index of all submitted manuscripts. A similarity report will be generated and, where necessary, provided to the author(s). Based on the similarity report, the Editorial Board will determine the appropriate course of action as follows:

  1. Similarity Index above 45%: The manuscript will be immediately rejected due to excessive similarity, poor citation practices, and/or insufficient paraphrasing. No resubmission of the same manuscript will be accepted.
  2. Similarity Index between 20–45%: The manuscript will be returned to the author(s) for revision. Authors are required to provide correct and complete citations for all identified instances of similarity and to perform thorough paraphrasing, even where citations have already been provided. A revised manuscript must be resubmitted along with a new Turnitin report demonstrating a similarity index of less than 15%.
  3. Similarity Index less than 20%: The manuscript is considered acceptable in terms of originality, though minor citation improvements may still be required. Authors must ensure that all outsourced or referenced text is properly cited before final acceptance.

Author Responsibilities

In cases 2 and 3 above, authors are expected to revise their manuscript carefully, add all required citations, and apply proper paraphrasing to any outsourced text. The revised manuscript must be resubmitted together with a new Turnitin similarity report confirming that the similarity index has been reduced to below 15% and that no plagiarism is present.

IJDMDE reserves the right to reject any manuscript at any stage of the review or publication process if plagiarism is detected, and to retract any published article found to have violated this policy. All decisions made by the Editorial Board in matters of plagiarism are final.