1. General Principle

Nyayavimarsha is committed to publishing original legal scholarship and does not tolerate plagiarism or other forms of academic misrepresentation.

Plagiarism includes presenting another person's words, ideas, arguments, research or other intellectual contribution as one's own without appropriate acknowledgment.

Plagiarism may be intentional or unintentional and may involve published or unpublished material.

2. Forms of Plagiarism

For the purposes of this Policy, plagiarism may include:

• reproducing another person's text without appropriate quotation or attribution;
• closely paraphrasing another person's work without acknowledgment;
• appropriating another person's original argument, structure, research or analysis without attribution;
• using material obtained from another person without appropriate acknowledgment where acknowledgment is academically required;
• presenting previously published work as new without appropriate disclosure; and
• reusing substantial portions of one's own previously published work without appropriate citation or disclosure, commonly referred to as self-plagiarism or text recycling.

Properly attributed quotations, commonly used legal expressions, statutory language, judicial passages, case names, citations and bibliographic material shall not constitute plagiarism merely because similarity-detection software identifies matching text.

3. Similarity Screening

Nyayavimarsha may use plagiarism-detection or similarity-detection software as part of its editorial screening process.

A similarity percentage shall not, by itself, determine whether plagiarism has occurred.

Similarity reports are tools for editorial assessment. The context, nature, extent and attribution of the matching material shall be considered before action is taken.

4. Procedure Before Publication

Where potentially problematic similarity or plagiarism is identified in a submitted manuscript, the Journal may:

• seek clarification from the author;
• require correction, citation or rewriting;
• return the manuscript for revision;
• reject the manuscript; or
• take such other action as is proportionate to the seriousness of the concern.

Serious or deliberate plagiarism may result in rejection of the manuscript.

5. Duplicate Publication

Authors must not submit substantially the same manuscript simultaneously to Nyayavimarsha and another journal without disclosure and authorisation.

Previously published work must not be represented as an original unpublished submission.

Where a manuscript substantially builds upon the author's earlier publication, the earlier work should be appropriately disclosed and cited.

6. Plagiarism Discovered After Publication

Where credible evidence of plagiarism or serious academic misconduct emerges after publication, Nyayavimarsha shall examine the matter in accordance with its Publication Ethics Policy.

Depending upon the circumstances, the Journal may issue:

• a correction;
• an editorial notice;
• an expression of concern;
• a retraction; or
• another appropriate notice.

Published material shall not ordinarily be silently removed merely because a concern has arisen. Where removal is exceptionally necessary for legal, privacy, safety or other compelling reasons, an appropriate record or explanation may be maintained where practicable.

7. Author Declaration

By submitting a manuscript to Nyayavimarsha, the author(s) declare that:

• the submission is their original work;
• all sources have been appropriately acknowledged;
• direct quotations have been properly identified and cited;
• the manuscript has not been submitted simultaneously elsewhere unless expressly disclosed;
• any substantial overlap with previously published work has been disclosed; and
• the author(s) accept responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of the manuscript.

Nyayavimarsha reserves the right to take appropriate editorial action where this declaration is found to be materially false.