Plagiarism is the unethical act of copying someone else’s prior ideas, processes, results or words without explicit acknowledgement of the original author and source. Plagiarism is said to have occurred when large portions of a manuscript have been copied from existing sources.The following types of plagiarism are considered by the International Journal of Life Skills Education:

(i). Full Plagiarism:

Previously published content without any changes to the text, idea and grammar is considered as full plagiarism. It involves presenting exact text from a source as one’s own.

(ii). Partial Plagiarism:

If content is a mixture from multiple different sources, where the author has extensively rephrased text, then it is known as partial plagiarism.

(iii). Self-Plagiarism:

When an author reuses complete or portions of their pre-published papers, then it is known as self-plagiarism. Complete self-plagiarism is a case when an author republishes their own previously published work in a new journal.

Policy and Action for Plagiarism:

The journal is strictly against any unethical act of copying or plagiarism in any form. All the submitted manuscripts for publication are checked for plagiarism after submission and before starting review. The actions which will be taken if plagiarism is found at different stages as under:

(i). Plagiarism detected before publishing:

The journal will review any case of plagiarism based on the extent of plagiarism. If plagiarism is detected by the editorial board member, reviewer, editor etc., in any stage of article process- before or after acceptance, the authors will be alerted and asked either to rewrite the content or cite the source.
• 5% – 30% plagiarism: The manuscript will be sent back to author for content revision. On receiving the revised manuscript, it will again go through the plagiarism check.
• More than 30 % Plagiarism: The manuscript will be rejected without the review. The authors are advised to revise the manuscript and resubmit the manuscript as a new submission.

(ii). Plagiarism detected after publishing:

If plagiarism is detected after publishing, the journal will conduct a preliminary investigation. Based on the findings, the journal will contact the author as well as the author’s institution and/or funding agency. A statement, bidirectionally linked online to and from the original paper, to note the plagiarism and to provide a reference to the plagiarised material. The paper containing the plagiarism will also be obviously marked on each page of the PDF. Depending on the extent of the plagiarism, the paper may also be formally retracted.