Plagiarism and Similarity Policy

What is checked

Every submission is put through a similarity check at technical screening, before it reaches a reviewer. Revised manuscripts are checked again before acceptance.

How the report is read

A similarity percentage is not a verdict. The editors read the report, not the number. What matters is where the similarity falls.

  • Matched primary-text quotations, standard formulae, established terminology and the reference list are excluded before the report is assessed.
  • A single continuous match against another author's argument or prose is treated seriously, however small it is as a share of the whole.
  • Scattered low-level matches across quotations and citations are normal in this field and are not, by themselves, a finding.
  • As a working guide, an adjusted similarity above 15%, or any single source above 5%, is examined line by line before the paper proceeds.

What counts as plagiarism

  • Reproducing another author's words without quotation marks and a citation.
  • Paraphrasing another author's argument closely without attribution.
  • Reusing a translation — of a verse, a passage or a whole text — without crediting the translator.
  • Presenting an edition's readings, emendations or apparatus as one's own work.
  • Taking a citation from another work and presenting it as consulted at first hand.
  • Reusing your own published work without disclosure — duplicate publication.
  • Splitting one piece of research across several papers to increase the count.

A note on this field

Scholarship on classical texts quotes constantly, and it quotes material that many others have quoted. That is expected and it is not misconduct. The line is attribution: quote the text, cite the edition, credit the translator, and name the scholar whose reading you are following even where you go on to disagree with it.

What follows a finding

  • Before review — the paper is returned with the report and the passages marked. A corrected version may be resubmitted where the problem is one of attribution rather than substance.
  • During review — review is suspended and the author is asked to respond in writing before any decision is taken.
  • After publication — handled under Corrections and Retractions. A substantiated finding leads to retraction, with a notice that stays permanently attached to the article.
  • Serious or repeated misconduct — the author's institution is informed, and the journal may decline further submissions from that author.

An author is always told what has been found and is always given the chance to answer before a decision is made.