The Andalasian International Journal of Agricultural and Natural Sciences (AIJANS) is committed to promoting and upholding the highest standards of academic integrity. Plagiarism, in any form, is strictly prohibited, as it undermines the quality of scholarly research and the trustworthiness of the scientific community. AIJANS uses advanced plagiarism detection tools to ensure all submitted manuscripts meet these standards.

Plagiarism Detection

AIJANS employs Turnitin as the primary tool for detecting plagiarism in submitted manuscripts. This tool checks for similarities between the manuscript and existing literature, ensuring the work is original and appropriately cited.

Similarity Index Threshold

• The maximum allowable similarity index for a manuscript is 25%. This index is calculated after excluding bibliographic content (e.g., references and citations) and small sources.
• The manuscript will be automatically rejected if the similarity index exceeds 25%.

Plagiarism Definition

Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:

1. Direct Plagiarism: Copying another's work word-for-word without proper citation.
2. Self-Plagiarism: Reusing significant parts of one’s previously published work without acknowledgement or permission.
3. Mosaic Plagiarism: Paraphrasing or altering words of another source while maintaining the original ideas without proper citation.
4. Insufficient Attribution: Failing to appropriately credit the source, even when some changes are made to the text.

Consequences of Plagiarism

• If a manuscript is found to have a similarity index exceeding the allowed 25%, it will be rejected outright.
• If plagiarism is detected after publication, the journal will follow COPE’s guidelines for handling such cases. This may result in a formal retraction of the published article and a detailed explanation of the reasons for the retraction.

Author Responsibility

It is the authors' responsibility to ensure their work's originality before submission. Proper citation practices must be followed for all sources, and any reused content (including from the authors’ previous publications) must be identified and cited.

Editorial Oversight

The editorial team rigorously screens all submitted manuscripts using Turnitin. Manuscripts flagged for potential plagiarism are subject to further investigation. In borderline cases, the editorial team may request clarifications or revisions from the authors to reduce the similarity index before final rejection or acceptance decisions are made.