Plagiarism Policy

1. The journal has a strict policy against any form of unethical behavior, including copying or plagiarism. Plagiarism is defined as copying significant portions of a manuscript from previously published sources. All manuscripts submitted to JIBE are checked for plagiarism using tools such as iThenticate, Turnitin, or other anti-plagiarism software. A plagiarism report with no more than a 20% similarity index must be submitted with the manuscript.
2. Plagiarism is the unethical act of copying someone else's prior ideas, processes, results, or words without explicit acknowledgment of the original author and source. Self-plagiarism occurs when an author utilizes a large part of his/her own previously published work without using appropriate references. This can range from getting the same manuscript published in multiple journals to modifying a previously published manuscript with some new data.
3. Manuscripts found to be plagiarized during the initial stages of review are outright rejected and not considered for publication in the journal. In case a manuscript is found to be plagiarized after publication, the Editor-in-Chief will conduct a preliminary investigation, maybe with the help of a suitable committee constituted for the purpose.
4. If the manuscript is found to be plagiarized beyond the acceptable limits, the journal will contact the author's Institute / College / University and Funding Agency, if any. A determination of misconduct will lead JIBE to run a statement bi-directionally linked online to and from the original paper, to note the plagiarism and provide a reference to the plagiarized material.
5. The paper that has plagiarized work in it, will be marked and upon determination of the extent of plagiarism, the paper may be formally retracted.

Types of Plagiarism

1. Full Plagiarism: Previously published content without any changes to the text, idea, and grammar is considered full plagiarism. It involves presenting exact text from a source as one's own.
2. Partial Plagiarism: If the content is a mixture of multiple different sources, where the author has extensively rephrased text, then it is known as partial plagiarism.
3. Self-Plagiarism: When an author reuses complete or portions of their pre-published research, then it is known as self-plagiarism. Complete self-plagiarism is a case when an author republishes their own previously published work in a new journal.

Fabricated Data

It is a serious offense to fabricate and manipulate data for any purpose. At any point, the editorial office can request data files or datasets to investigate. If JIBE suspects that the data is not authentic or has been manipulated, we will reject the paper and inform the institution.

Manipulation of Images

Images can be altered to get the desired appearance to highlight or obscure a particular result or affect the interpretation of data is unethical and can cast doubts on the credibility of research. All figures and images submitted to JIBE should be minimally processed. If the editorial office finds evidence of manipulation, it reserves the right to ask for original data. Moreover, the editorial office can also reject the paper and contact the authors’ institute if they deem it necessary.
Making linear changes in the images such as brightening it or having some color contrast is allowed, although care should be taken that the settings are applied to the whole figure and not just one part. Moreover, change should be moderate to prevent changes in the interpretation of results. Furthermore, cropping and resizing of the image is also allowed to fit the size of the journal page.

JIBE respects intellectual property and aims to protect and promote the original work of its authors. Manuscripts containing plagiarized material are against the standards of quality, research, and innovation. Hence, all authors submitting articles to JIBE are expected to abide by ethical standards and abstain from plagiarism, in any form. In case, an author is found to be suspected of plagiarism in a submitted or published manuscript then, JIBE shall contact the author (s) to submit his / her (their) explanation within two weeks, which may be forwarded to the Fact Finding Committee (FFC) constituted for the purpose, for further course of action. If JIBE does not receive any response from the author within the stipulated time, then the Director / Dean / Head of the concerned College, Institution, or Organization or the Vice Chancellor of the University to which the author is affiliated shall be contacted to take strict action against the concerned author.

JIBE shall take serious action against published manuscripts found to contain plagiarism and shall completely remove them from JIBE website and other third-party websites where the paper is listed and indexed. The moment, any article published in JIBE database is reported to be plagiarized, JIBE will constitute a Fact Finding Committee (FFC) to investigate the same. Upon having established that the manuscript is plagiarized from some previously published work, JIBE shall support the original author and manuscript irrespective of the publisher and may take any or all of the following immediate actions or follow the additional course of actions as recommended by the committee:

1. JIBE editorial office shall immediately contact the Director / Dean / Head of the concerned College, Institution, or Organization or the Vice Chancellor of the University to which the author(s) is (are) affiliated to take strict action against the concerned author.
2. JIBE shall remove the PDF copy of the published manuscript from the website and disable all links to full-text articles. The term Plagiarized Manuscript shall be appended to the published manuscript title.
3. JIBE shall disable the author's account with the journal and reject all future submissions from the author for a period of 3 / 5 / 10 years or even ban the authors permanently.
4. JIBE may also display the list of such authors along with their full contact details on the JIBE website.

Any other course of action, as recommended by the Committee or as deemed fit for the instant case or as decided by the Editorial Board, from time to time.