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<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unintentional plagiarism remains a persistent risk in scholarly writing and it shows up at all…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":56923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1988,2],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[1895],"class_list":["post-56919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-academic-writing"],"better_featured_image":{"id":56923,"alt_text":"Unintentional Plagiarism: How Editors Can Detect and Prevent It","caption":"","description":"Learn how unintentional plagiarism happens in academic writing and why automated tools aren't enough. Discover editorial workflows combining similarity detection with human judgment to protect research integrity.","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":910,"height":340,"file":"2025\/11\/Sami-EA-Blogs-Banner-910-x-340-px-3.jpg","filesize":205750,"sizes":{},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1","keywords":[]}},"post":56919,"source_url":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Sami-EA-Blogs-Banner-910-x-340-px-3.jpg"},"acf":{"faq_main_heading":"Frequently Asked Questions","faq_heading_one":"What is unintentional plagiarism and how does it differ from deliberate plagiarism?","faq_heading_two":"Why do researchers and students commit unintentional plagiarism even when they understand citation rules?","faq_heading_three":"How can journal editors effectively detect and prevent unintentional plagiarism in submissions?","faq_heading_four":"What are the limitations of automated plagiarism detection tools like Turnitin and iThenticate?","faq_heading_five":"How should authors prepare manuscripts to avoid unintentional plagiarism before submission?","faq_heading_six":"What is the role of professional editing services in preventing unintentional plagiarism?","faq_description_one":"Unintentional plagiarism occurs when authors reuse text, ideas, or structural elements from other sources without adequate citation or sufficient paraphrasing, but without deliberate intent to deceive. Common forms include patchwriting with poor paraphrasing that preserves original structure, missing or incorrect citations, reusing standard methodological phrasing without contextualization, and self-plagiarism where authors recycle their own earlier work without attribution. Unlike deliberate plagiarism, these errors stem from misunderstanding, time pressure, or inadequate training rather than intentional misconduct.","faq_description_two":"Research shows that awareness doesn't always translate to correct practice. Studies of research students found that while most reported knowledge of plagiarism concepts, many hadn't read institutional regulations fully and still committed unintentional overlap across disciplines. Primary causes include time pressure from publish-or-perish incentives that compress writing schedules, language barriers where non-native English speakers struggle with technical paraphrasing, poor training on citation norms, misunderstanding what constitutes common knowledge, and over-reliance on automated tools without human contextual review.","faq_description_three":"Editors should implement a two-step workflow combining automated screening with human contextual judgment. First, run every submission through vetted similarity-checking services like CrossCheck or iThenticate during initial triage before peer review. Then, manually review flagged matches to distinguish acceptable reuse in Methods sections or boilerplate text from problematic overlap in novel analysis. Follow COPE flowcharts for consistent handling, communicate clearly with authors about minor overlaps requesting revisions, and escalate to institutional contacts only when overlap suggests serious misconduct or authors don't respond.","faq_description_four":"Automated plagiarism detection tools report textual similarity percentages but cannot determine intent or evaluate context. They flag all matches equally, including acceptable reuse of standard methodological phrasing, proper citations, common disciplinary terminology, and references sections. Tools provide fast, consistent database comparisons but lack the judgment to distinguish discipline-specific norms where method reuse is standard practice. Human editorial review remains essential to interpret similarity reports, evaluate paraphrase quality, assess whether appropriate attribution exists, and make nuanced decisions about significance and intent.","faq_description_five":"Authors should run pre-submission similarity checks and manually review each flagged match, removing or properly citing any unacknowledged reuse. Maintain meticulous reference manager records during drafting to prevent citation drift. When paraphrasing, change both wording and sentence structure while citing the original source; reserve direct quotes for cases where specific wording is critical. Declare any intentionally reused text, such as previously published methods, in cover letters with proper citations. Keep detailed notes linking claims to sources throughout the writing process to ensure no attribution gaps.","faq_description_six":"Pre-submission editorial services reduce accidental plagiarism by correcting poor paraphrasing and improving attribution language, standardizing reference formatting and ensuring citations appear where required, and preparing authors to interpret similarity reports before journal submission. Professional manuscript editors combine language refinement with citation practice guidance, helping authors distinguish between acceptable discipline-specific phrasing and problematic textual overlap. Services like Enago's manuscript editing refine paraphrase quality while improving readability, reducing the likelihood that mechanical similarity checks will flag text requiring only clearer attribution rather than complete rewriting."},"views":168,"single_webinar_page_date":null,"single_webinar_page_time":null,"session_agenda":null,"who_should_attend_this_session":null,"about_the_speaker_field":null,"co-webinar-sec":null,"co_webinar_sec_one":null,"speaker-name":null,"webinar-date":null,"webinar-time":null,"webinar-s-image":null,"custum_webinar_category":null,"authors":[{"term_id":1895,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"editor","display_name":"Enago Academy","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2ef4bc47f3ceaa56f5eb3b26f9520fad298ba36ede4f86315997ffb45db37a1f?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Academy","first_name":"Editor","job_title":"","description":"Enago Academy, the knowledge arm of Enago, offers comprehensive and up-to-date resources on academic research and scholarly publishing to all levels of scholarly professionals: students, researchers, editors, publishers, and academic societies. It is also a popular platform for networking, allowing researchers to learn, share, and discuss their experiences within their network and community. The team, which comprises subject matter experts, academicians, trainers, and technical project managers, are passionate about helping researchers at all levels establish a successful career, both within and outside academia."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56919"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56953,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56919\/revisions\/56953"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56919"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enago.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=56919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}