Originality and Similarity Screening Policy

Commitment to originality

REMAP publishes original and unpublished works resulting from the research of those who sign them. By submitting a contribution, authors declare that it has not been published before and that it is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal or editorial body. The journal accepts works that have a prior version deposited as a preprint in an open repository, provided that authors declare this at the time of submission. This policy complements the section on misconduct in the code of ethics and is related to the artificial intelligence use policy.

Timing and procedure of the screening

All manuscripts are subject to similarity screening upon submission to the journal, before being sent to peer review. For this purpose, REMAP uses Copyleaks and, where applicable, other institutional tools available to the journal, which make it possible to compare the text with published sources and academic repositories. The report produced by these tools is an input for the editorial decision and not an automatic verdict.

Interpretation of similarity

REMAP does not apply a single numerical threshold to decide on a manuscript, because a similarity percentage does not by itself constitute a breach. The report is read with editorial judgment, and bibliographic references and properly attributed quotations are excluded from the assessment. Matches in conventional phrases of academic language, names of institutions, or common methodological descriptions do not constitute plagiarism. What the journal assesses is the presence of another person's text presented as one's own, the reproduction of passages without proper attribution, or the concentration of matches that reveals a lack of original elaboration.

Breaches addressed by this policy

Plagiarism: presenting the work, ideas, or text of other persons as one's own without due attribution.

Self-plagiarism or recycled text: reusing substantial passages from one's own previously published work without declaring or citing it.

Duplicate or redundant publication: submitting or publishing a work that essentially overlaps with another work already disseminated.

Text generated by artificial intelligence tools presented without the declaration required by the corresponding policy.

Action upon a finding

When screening or evaluation reveals a possible problem of originality, the Editor communicates the situation to the authors and offers them the opportunity to clarify it before a decision is made. The editorial response depends on the seriousness of the case and the stage at which it is detected:

If the work is still under review, actions may range from requesting corrections and proper attribution of sources to rejecting the manuscript.

If the work has already been published, the journal proceeds in accordance with the code of ethics, through a correction, an expression of concern, or a retraction, as appropriate.

The journal keeps a record of the screening and of the actions taken.

Validity and updating

This policy is reviewed periodically to keep it aligned with the tools available and with good practices in the field. Questions may be directed to the Editor of REMAP at remap@ugto.mx.

References

COPE, Core Practices and flowcharts on plagiarism. https://publicationethics.org/core-practices

Copyleaks. https://copyleaks.com/