Professional Engineering Publishing Relies on iThenticate and CrossCheck to Uncover Plagiarism in the Research Publication Process

Problem

Professional Engineering Publishing (PEP), like many distinguished research journals, is facing a growing problem of plagiarism in professional journals. The ease at which scholarly material can be duplicated and republished is growing as more materials become accessible online. The high output of research publication is also making it far more difficult for editors to keep track of the content in their field, allowing cases of unnoticed plagiarism to slip through the cracks. To address this problem PEP turned to plagiarism checker software, iThenticate, and its CrossCheck service – a partnership with the leading scientific, technical and medical (STM) providers to ensure original content in leading STM publications around the world.

Solution

PEP began with an initial pilot of the service and orchestrated the entire publication workflow to incorporate plagiarism checking. “We generally use the Similarity Report first and then the Content Tracking report if potential issues are highlighted from the Similarity Report,” said Rosemary Grimes, Journals Publisher at PEP. “The interface for the Similarity Report enables rapid identification of potential problems. Being able to view the entire matched article to do a visual check for material surrounding the copied parts provides additional evidence of re-use of intellectual property – often the linking paragraphs are paraphrased to try to hide the unethical use of the material and the introduction and conclusions tend to be similar.”

Result

Using iThenticate and CrossCheck, PE Publishing was able to evaluate the scope of plagiarism within journal submissions and properly respond to the problem. The publisher was even able to pinpoint a high incidence in cases of content resubmission and previous publication, which has allowed them to become more vigilant with their editing process.

When asked about the overall impact of the program, Grimes provided a matter of fact conclusion: “If you are unable to screen material there is always a doubt. This was why we chose to use the CrossCheck / iThenticate service to screen material in advance of publication and to identify sources of duplication. We can now reassure our community that we are doing all we can to preserve the integrity of our journals and to protect our authors’ work against future plagiarism.”

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Leading publishers of research journals and magazines in the field of engineering.

Publications include the  Journal of Aerospace Engineering, the Journal of Nanoengineering and Nanosystems, and Environmental Engineering.

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