Plagiarism Policy

Plagiarism is the presentation of another person's words, ideas, data, results, images, or other intellectual contributions as one's own without appropriate acknowledgement or citation. Plagiarism, including the unattributed use of material from published or unpublished sources, constitutes a serious breach of publication ethics and is not acceptable in Management Science Advances (MSA).

All manuscripts submitted to MSA must represent original scholarly work and must appropriately acknowledge and cite all sources. Authors are responsible for ensuring that quotations, paraphrased material, data, figures, tables, and other content derived from external sources are properly attributed and, where required, used in accordance with applicable copyright and licensing requirements.

Similarity Screening

Submitted manuscripts are screened using appropriate similarity-detection software. Similarity reports are used as an editorial screening tool and are not interpreted solely on the basis of an overall similarity percentage. Editors evaluate the nature, extent, context, and sources of textual overlap when determining whether plagiarism, inappropriate duplication, or unacceptable text reuse may have occurred.

A similarity percentage alone does not establish plagiarism. Legitimately quoted and cited material, references, standard terminology, methodological expressions, previously disclosed versions of the work, and other appropriately attributed material may contribute to a similarity report without constituting plagiarism. Conversely, a relatively low overall similarity score does not exclude plagiarism where significant unattributed copying is identified.

Reuse of Authors' Previously Disseminated Work

Authors are expected to avoid inappropriate reuse of substantial portions of their own previously published material without appropriate citation and disclosure. Legitimate reuse of previously published material must be transparent and must comply with applicable copyright and licensing requirements.

Similarity with an author's legitimately disseminated preprint, conference paper, thesis or dissertation, repository version, or other previously disclosed version of the work does not automatically constitute plagiarism. Relevant prior versions must be transparently disclosed and appropriately cited where necessary. The Editorial Office will evaluate such overlap in context and in accordance with the journal's policies concerning originality, previous dissemination, and publication integrity.

Submission or publication of substantially the same research in more than one publication venue without appropriate disclosure may constitute duplicate or redundant publication and is considered separately from plagiarism under the journal's applicable publication-integrity policies.

Suspected Plagiarism

If plagiarism or substantial unattributed overlap is suspected or identified during submission, peer review, or after publication, the matter will be assessed according to the nature and extent of the overlap and the available evidence.

Detailed procedures for assessing allegations of plagiarism and other forms of suspected research or publication misconduct are provided in the journal's Unethical Behaviour policy.

Where an established plagiarism concern affects an article that has already been published, any formal action affecting the scholarly record will be taken in accordance with the journal's Retraction and Correction Policies.

Requirements concerning copyright ownership, permissions, licensing, and lawful reuse of previously published or third-party material are addressed separately in the journal's Copyright and Licensing policy.

COPE Guidance

MSA assesses plagiarism and inappropriate textual overlap in accordance with its applicable publication ethics policies and relevant guidance and recommendations provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).