Research Misconduct

1. Detection Process

A. Initial Screening
* All submissions undergo automated plagiarism detection software analysis
* Cross-reference against published literature, preprints, and web content

B. Manual Review
* Editor review of similarity reports
* Expert assessment of potential concerns
* Evaluation of proper citation practices
* Review of figure and table originality

2. Types of Plagiarism Monitored

* Text copying
* Figure/table reproduction/manipulating
* Data reuse without attribution
* Translation plagiarism
* Self-plagiarism/text recycling
* Ideas and concepts without proper credit

3. Consequences

* Rejection of manuscripts with substantial plagiarism
* Retraction of published articles if plagiarism discovered
* Institutional notification when warranted
* Public notices when required

4. Plagiarism, Data Fabrication, and Image Manipulation

Innovation Press makes all reasonable efforts to investigate publication misconduct, including plagiarism, falsification, and fabrication.

1. Plagiarism is not acceptable in the Innovation Press journals. Plagiarism involves the inclusion of large sections of unaltered or minimally altered text from an existing source without appropriate and unambiguous attribution, and/or an attempt to misattribute original authorship regarding ideas or results, and copying text, images, or data from another source, even from your own publications, without giving credit to the source.

2. For the reuse of a text that is copied from another source, it must be between quotation marks and the source must be cited. If a study's design or the manuscript's structure or language has been inspired by previous studies, these studies must be cited explicitly.

3. If plagiarism is detected during the peer-review process, the manuscript may be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, we may publish a Correction or retract the paper.

4. Falsification is manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results so that the findings are not accurately represented in the research record.

5. Image files must not be manipulated or adjusted in any way that could lead to misinterpretation of the information provided by the original image. Irregular manipulation includes:
* Introduction, enhancement, moving, or removing features from the original image;
* Grouping of images that should be presented separately;
* Modifying the contrast, brightness, or color balance to obscure, eliminate, or enhance some information.
If irregular image manipulation is identified and confirmed during the peer-review process, we may reject the manuscript. If irregular image manipulation is identified and confirmed after publication, we may publish a Correction or retract the paper.

6. Innovation Press reserves the right to contact the authors' institution(s) to investigate possible publication misconduct if the editors find conclusive evidence of misconduct before or after publication. The Innovation Press has a partnership with iThenticate, which is the most trusted similarity checker. It is used to analyze received manuscripts to avoid plagiarism to the greatest extent possible. When plagiarism becomes evident after publication, we will retract the original publication or require modifications, depending on the degree of plagiarism, context within the published article, and its impact on the overall integrity of the published study. Journal editors will act under the relevant COPE guidelines.