Plagiarism Policy

Trends in Intellectual Property Research is committed to maintaining the highest standards of academic integrity and enforces a strict zero-tolerance approach to plagiarism in any form, including self-plagiarism, duplicate submission, and improper reuse of text.

All manuscripts are subject to compulsory similarity checks at the initial editorial stage using recognized plagiarism detection tools such as Turnitin or equivalent software.

Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:

• Direct reproduction of text without appropriate citation or acknowledgment;
• Extensive use of substantial portions of another work, evaluated in terms of both scope and significance;
• Paraphrasing ideas, language, or structure from existing sources without proper attribution.

Authors are solely responsible for ensuring that their submissions are original and that all sources are accurately cited. Even limited overlaps—such as commonly used legal definitions or standard methodological descriptions—must be properly referenced. As a general benchmark, submissions should reflect an overall similarity index below 20% (excluding references), with no individual source contributing more than 4%.

In cases where plagiarism is established, the journal may take the following actions:

• Immediate rejection of the manuscript;
• Notification to the author’s affiliated institution, where deemed necessary;
• Restrictions on future submissions;
• Retraction of published work if misconduct is identified after publication, accompanied by a formal notice.

All allegations of plagiarism are handled in accordance with established ethical frameworks, including the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), ensuring a fair and transparent review process.