The Al-Albab maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards plagiarism. When plagiarism is identified in any article submitted for publication in this journal, the following specific actions (penalties) will be taken:
Plagiarism is defined as the "use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's original work." Articles must be original, unpublished, and unmodified. Any material from another source taken verbatim must be identified as distinct from the original text by (1) indentation, (2) use of quotation marks, and (3) citation of the source. Any text exceeding fair use standards or any graphic material reproduced from another source requires permission from the copyright holder and, if feasible, the original author(s). Additionally, the source must be identified, such as previous publications.
All submitted articles will be checked for similarity using Turnitin. When plagiarism is detected, the Managing Editor responsible for reviewing the article will agree on a course of action based on the level of plagiarism detected in the article, in accordance with the following guidelines:
- Similarity Index Above 40%. Article rejected (due to poor citation or poor paraphrasing, article outright rejected, NO RESUBMISSION accepted).
- Similarity Index 40-20%. Sent to the author for improvement (provide correct citations to all places of similarity and ensure proper paraphrasing even if the citation is provided).
- Similarity Index Less Than 20%. Accepted, or citation improvement may be required (proper citations must be provided for all outsourced texts).
In cases 2 and 3, authors must carefully revise the article, include necessary citations, and effectively paraphrase outsourced text. Additionally, they must resubmit the article with a Turnitin report demonstrating no plagiarism and a similarity score of less than 20%.