Athena: Journal of Social, Culture and Society is committed to maintaining originality, transparency, academic integrity, and responsible scholarly communication. Manuscripts submitted to Athena may be screened for text similarity and other indicators of research-integrity concerns before or during the editorial and peer-review process.

Plagiarism occurs when an author presents another person's words, ideas, data, arguments, images, results, creative material, or intellectual contribution as their own without appropriate acknowledgment, citation, quotation, or permission where permission is legally required.

Plagiarism may occur intentionally or through inadequate scholarly attribution. Authors are responsible for ensuring that all sources are accurately identified and appropriately acknowledged.

• Direct Plagiarism: Copying text verbatim from another source without appropriate quotation and citation.
• Paraphrasing Without Attribution: Rewriting or summarizing another person's ideas, arguments, interpretations, or findings without acknowledging the original source.
• Mosaic or Patchwork Plagiarism: Combining phrases, sentences, or ideas from one or more sources with minor modification while failing to provide appropriate acknowledgment.
• Unattributed Ideas: Presenting theories, concepts, arguments, interpretations, or intellectual contributions originating from another person as if they were the author's own.
• Improper Use of Data: Reproducing another researcher's datasets, findings, statistics, or analytical results without appropriate citation, acknowledgment, authorization, or licensing.
• Improper Use of Figures and Other Materials: Reproducing images, photographs, charts, tables, maps, illustrations, questionnaires, instruments, or other protected material without appropriate attribution and permission where required.
• Quotation Misrepresentation: Reproducing directly quoted material without quotation marks, block-quotation formatting, or equivalent indication that the words originated from another source.
• Source Misrepresentation: Providing an inaccurate or misleading citation that conceals or misrepresents the actual origin of material.
• Unauthorized Authorship or Contract Cheating: Submitting work substantially produced by another person as the author's own scholarly work without appropriate acknowledgment or legitimate authorship attribution.
• Inappropriate Text Recycling: Reusing substantial portions of an author's own previously published material without appropriate citation, disclosure, or justification.

Authors must appropriately disclose and cite their own previously published work when it is reused in a new manuscript. Substantial duplication of previously published material may constitute inappropriate text recycling or redundant publication.

Limited overlap may sometimes be legitimate, particularly for standardized methodological descriptions, but editors will assess the amount, location, context, attribution, necessity, and scholarly significance of the duplicated material.

Manuscripts submitted to Athena are subject to editorial screening for originality. The journal may use Turnitin and Plagiarism Checker X as text-similarity screening tools.

Similarity reports are reviewed by an editor or authorized editorial staff member. The assessment considers the source, amount, location, nature, attribution, and context of matching material rather than relying solely on an overall numerical similarity score.

Bibliographies, correctly quoted text, commonly used terminology, standardized methodological statements, institutional names, legitimate prior-publication references, and other appropriate matches may contribute to a similarity score without constituting plagiarism.

Some integrity violations are not technically plagiarism but are nevertheless serious forms of research or publication misconduct. These include:

• fabrication of research data or results;
• falsification or inappropriate manipulation of data;
• manipulation or duplication of figures or images;
• fabrication or falsification of references and DOIs;
• citation manipulation;
• undisclosed duplicate or redundant publication;
• inappropriate authorship practices;
• manipulation of the peer-review process; and
• deliberate misrepresentation of research methods, ethical approval, participants, findings, or sources.

Such matters are handled according to Athena's Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement and applicable publication-ethics guidance.

Where a similarity or integrity concern is identified before publication, the journal may take one or more of the following actions depending on the seriousness of the issue:

• request clarification from the author(s);
• request correction of citations or attribution;
• require rewriting or revision of overlapping material;
• request supporting data, permissions, or documentation;
• suspend editorial evaluation while a concern is examined;
• reject the manuscript where substantial plagiarism, duplication, fabrication, falsification, or other serious misconduct is established.

Concerns regarding plagiarism or research integrity may be investigated even after an article has been published.

Depending on the evidence and seriousness of the matter, appropriate post-publication action may include:

• publication of a correction or corrigendum;
• publication of an expression of concern while an investigation remains unresolved;
• retraction of the article where the published record is substantially unreliable or serious misconduct is established;
• notification of relevant institutions or responsible authorities where appropriate; or
• other proportionate action necessary to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.