Plagiarism Policy

1. Introduction

The Journal of Governance and Spatial Planning (JGSP) upholds the highest standards of academic integrity and publication ethics. All manuscripts submitted to JGSP must represent original work that has not been published elsewhere in any form and is not under consideration for publication in another journal. To maintain the integrity of scholarly communication, JGSP implements a strict plagiarism policy.

2. Definition of Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person’s ideas, processes, results, or words without proper acknowledgment. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Copying text, figures, or data without citation.

• Paraphrasing without proper attribution.

• Claiming another’s research findings as one’s own.

• Self-plagiarism (reusing own work without citation).

3. Plagiarism Screening Process

All manuscripts are subjected to screening using Turnitin (or equivalent software) prior to peer-review.

⚠️

The similarity index should be below 20% (excluding references, quotations, and methodological standard phrases).

4. Handling Detected Plagiarism

Before Publication: Manuscript will be returned for correction or rejected if plagiarism is substantial.

After Publication: The article will be retracted and marked as “Retracted” in the online system. Institutions will be notified.

5. Author Responsibility

Authors affirm that the manuscript is original work and all co-authors have approved the final version.

6. Editorial & Reviewer Role

Suspicious cases will be investigated confidentially in accordance with COPE guidelines.

7. Ethical Guidelines

JGSP follows ethical publication standards based on the COPE Code of Conduct and the Elsevier Ethics Toolkit.

Policy updated periodically to reflect technological advances. Last updated: 2026.