Plagiarism Screening

AKSEN Journal of Islam and Humanities (AJIH) Published by AKSEN (Akademika Semesta Nusantara)

AJIH is committed to publishing original scholarship and maintaining the highest standards of academic integrity. All manuscripts submitted to the journal undergo mandatory plagiarism screening as part of the editorial process.

1. Screening Tools

All manuscripts are screened using one of the following industry-standard plagiarism detection services:

  • Turnitin
  • iThenticate

The editorial office will use whichever of these two services is available to it as its standard screening tool; both are widely used, cross-database plagiarism detection systems within scholarly publishing.

2. Similarity Threshold

  • Manuscripts must have an overall similarity index of 20% or lower to proceed to peer review.
  • The similarity index is calculated excluding:
    • The reference list / bibliography
    • Direct quotations that are properly attributed and formatted (e.g., block quotes, in-text quotations with citation)
    • Standard phrases, common methodological language, and properly cited Qur'anic verses, hadith texts, or other primary source material quoted in the original or in standard translation
  • Manuscripts exceeding the 20% threshold, once the above exclusions are applied, will not proceed to peer review until revised.

3. Screening Procedure

  1. Upon submission, the manuscript is entered into Turnitin or iThenticate by the editorial office as part of the initial editorial screening stage (see Article Publication Process, Section 2).
  2. The Managing Editor reviews the similarity report, paying attention not only to the overall percentage but to the distribution of matches — a low overall score with one large block matched to a single source can be as concerning as a higher overall score spread across many minor matches.
  3. Based on this review, one of the following outcomes applies:
    • Passed — similarity index is 20% or below (after exclusions), and no single-source match is disproportionately concentrated; manuscript proceeds to peer review.
    • Returned for revision — similarity index exceeds 20%, or a concerning concentration of matched text is identified; the manuscript is returned to the author with the similarity report (or a summary of flagged sections) and a request for revision and resubmission.
    • Rejected — similarity screening reveals substantial verbatim reproduction of another work without attribution, indicating apparent plagiarism or self-plagiarism rather than incidental overlap; the manuscript is rejected outright and may be referred for further ethical review (see Section 5).

4. Author Responsibilities

Authors are responsible for ensuring that:

  • All quoted material is clearly marked as a quotation and properly cited.
  • Paraphrased content is substantively reworded in the author's own words, not merely rearranged, and is still properly attributed.
  • Prior work by the same author(s) (including theses, conference papers, or previous publications) is properly cited where reused, to avoid self-plagiarism; substantial reuse of an author's own previously published material without disclosure and citation is treated as a form of plagiarism.
  • Translations of primary sources (e.g., Qur'anic verses, hadith, classical texts) are attributed to their translator/source where a published translation is used.

5. Suspected Misconduct

If plagiarism is suspected or confirmed — whether at the screening stage or after publication — AJIH will act in accordance with its Publication Ethics policy, which the editorial board is encouraged to align with Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. Depending on the stage and severity, this may include:

  • Rejection of the manuscript
  • Formal correspondence with the author(s) and, where relevant, their institution
  • Retraction of a published article, accompanied by a public retraction notice, if plagiarism is discovered post-publication

6. Transparency

  • The similarity report for a manuscript is treated as confidential editorial material and is not published or shared beyond the editorial team, the author (where relevant to a revision request), and — in cases of suspected misconduct — parties involved in a formal ethics investigation.
  • The 20% threshold and screening tools listed in this document may be reviewed periodically by the editorial board; any change will be announced publicly on the journal website.