Definition of Plagiarism

Plagiarism is defined as presenting another person’s work as one’s own work. Presentation includes copying or reproducing it without the acknowledgement of the source.

Plagiarism involves:

• using a choice phrase or sentence that you have come across
• copying word-for-word directly from a text
• paraphrasing the words from a text very closely
• using text downloaded from the internet
• borrowing statistics or assembled facts from another person or source
• copying or downloading figures, photographs, pictures or diagrams without acknowledging your sources
• copying from the notes or essays of a fellow student
• copying from your own notes, on a text, tutorial, video or lecture, that contain direct quotations

Plagiarism could be intentional (dishonest plagiarism) or non-intentional (negligent plagiarism).

Colombia Médica Plagiarism Policy

Authors should note that:

• Copying verbatim text, tables or illustrations from any source (journal article, book, monographs, thesis, Internet/any electronic media or any other published or unpublished material) and passing it as ones own is considered plagiarism whether or not a reference to the copied portion is given.
• Listing the source of copied material under `References` does not absolve the authors of plagiarism.
• If a few lines of text are to be reproduced from any source, ‘the author’ and ‘the source’ must be clearly indicated in the text. The reproduced lines must be in italics and given within quotes. If it is a paragraph it must be slightly indented also. To reproduce large portions of text, permission from the copyright owner(s) must be obtained and submitted to the Colombia Médica
• To reproduce tables or illustrations, permission from the copyright owner(s) must be obtained and a copy of the permission letter must be submitted to the journal. The source must be clearly acknowledged below the table or illustration as required by the copyright owner(s).

Plagiarism Prevention

Colombia Médica uses the licensed version of Plagiarism Detection Software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Plagiarism Detection Software checks content against a database of periodicals, the Internet, and a comprehensive article database. It generates a similarity report, highlighting the percentage of overlap between the uploaded article and the published material. Any instance of content overlap is further scrutinized for suspected plagiarism according to the publisher’s Editorial Policies. Colombia Médica allows an overall similarity of 20% for a manuscript to be considered for publication.

Anti-plagiarism declaration by submitting paper for publication to Colombia Médica

Authors must certify that;

• Authors are fully aware that plagiarism is illegal & wrong and authors know that plagiarism is the use of another person’s idea or published work and to pretend that it is one’s own.
• Authors declare that each contribution to their article or project has been acknowledged and source of information from other peoples’ published or unpublished works have been cited referenced.
• Author(s) certify that they/you are solely responsible for text of the article and work included in the article along with any incomplete reference.

COPE’s Core Practices a when faced with cases of suspected misconduct.

Suspected plagiarism in a submitted manuscript           

Suspected plagiarism in a published manuscript