Plagiarism and Originality Policy

LEX POLICY: Journal of Law, Public Policy and Justice takes plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, and the inappropriate use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) seriously. The journal applies plagiarism screening and editorial assessment to safeguard the originality, academic integrity, and reliability of all published scholarly work.

Plagiarism Screening

All submitted manuscripts are screened using plagiarism-detection software, such as Turnitin.
The editorial team conducts similarity screening at least twice: before the manuscript proceeds to the peer-review process and before final publication.
The maximum acceptable similarity index is 20%. Manuscripts exceeding this threshold may be returned to the authors for correction and resubmission or may be rejected, depending on the nature, source, and extent of the similarity identified.
A similarity index below 20% does not automatically indicate that a manuscript is free from plagiarism. Similarity reports are assessed qualitatively by the editorial team because inappropriate copying may occur even when the overall similarity percentage is relatively low.
Legitimate similarities arising from properly cited quotations, references, commonly used terminology, legal provisions, official document titles, methodological descriptions, or other appropriately attributed material will be considered in the editorial assessment.

Originality Requirement

Authors must submit original manuscripts that have not been previously published and are not simultaneously under consideration for publication by another journal.
Any form of plagiarism, including the unattributed use of another person's ideas, arguments, text, data, images, tables, figures, legal analysis, or other intellectual contributions, is prohibited.
Authors are responsible for ensuring that all sources used in the manuscript, including scholarly publications, legislation, judicial decisions, policy documents, reports, datasets, and other materials, are appropriately acknowledged and cited.
Manuscripts found to contain substantial unattributed material may be rejected at any stage of the editorial or peer-review process.

Self-Plagiarism and Redundant Publication

Authors must avoid redundant publication, duplicate publication, or substantial reuse of material from their previously published work without appropriate acknowledgment.
Authors should not present previously published findings, arguments, data, figures, or substantial portions of text as new material.
Where portions of previously published work need to be reused for legitimate scholarly purposes, the original publication must be appropriately cited and the relationship between the submitted manuscript and the previous work must be clearly disclosed.
Substantial overlap with an author's previous publication may result in a request for clarification or revision, or rejection where the overlap compromises the originality of the manuscript.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

The use of artificial intelligence tools must comply with the journal's Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy.

Authors may use assistive AI tools for purposes such as improving spelling, grammar, language clarity, readability, formatting, or presentation without disclosure, provided that such tools do not generate substantive scholarly content or materially alter the intellectual contribution of the manuscript.
Authors must not use generative AI tools to fabricate, falsify, manipulate, or misrepresent research data, findings, legal authorities, references, quotations, figures, images, interpretations, or other scholarly content.
Any use of generative AI that materially contributes to the preparation of substantive manuscript content must be transparently disclosed in accordance with the journal's Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy.
Authors remain fully responsible for independently verifying all AI-generated statements, interpretations, factual claims, legal authorities, references, and other content included in the manuscript.
Authors must ensure that AI-generated material does not contain fabricated information, non-existent references, inaccurate citations, misleading claims, inappropriate textual overlap, or other forms of academic misconduct.
Artificial intelligence systems, including ChatGPT and similar platforms, must not be listed as authors or co-authors because they cannot assume responsibility or accountability for scholarly work.
The editorial team reserves the right to request clarification or investigate a manuscript when there are reasonable indications of inappropriate, misleading, excessive, or undisclosed use of AI-generated content.

Editorial Actions and Consequences

If plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate use of generative AI is identified during submission, peer review, production, or after publication, the Editorial Board may take appropriate action according to the nature and severity of the issue.

Possible actions include:

requesting clarification from the author;
requesting correction or revision of the manuscript;
rejecting the manuscript;
conducting additional editorial or ethical review;
publishing a correction, expression of concern, or other appropriate notice;
retracting a published article where warranted; and
notifying the authors' affiliated institutions, research ethics bodies, funding organizations, or other relevant parties where the seriousness of the violation justifies such action.

Author Responsibility

LEX POLICY is committed to maintaining high standards of academic integrity and expects all authors to comply with responsible and ethical scholarly publishing practices.

By submitting a manuscript to LEX POLICY, authors affirm that their work is original, appropriately acknowledges all sources, does not contain unacceptable duplicate or redundant publication, and complies with the journal's policies concerning plagiarism, publication ethics, and the responsible use of artificial intelligence.