Plagiarism occurs when authors present material originating from another source as their own without appropriate acknowledgment. It may involve published or unpublished material and may occur in text, ideas, data, images, tables, figures, or other scholarly content.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Copying text from another source without appropriate quotation, citation, or attribution;
• Paraphrasing or summarizing another person's ideas without acknowledging the original source;
• Presenting another person's ideas, arguments, methods, or findings as one's own;
• Using data, tables, figures, images, or other materials without appropriate attribution and, where required, permission;
• Misrepresenting the source or authorship of scholarly material;
• Submitting work substantially created by another person while representing it as the author's own work; and
• Reusing substantial material from the author's own previously published work without appropriate citation or transparent acknowledgment of the earlier publication.

Manuscripts submitted to Renaissance are routinely screened for text similarity as part of the journal's editorial quality-control process.

The journal currently uses Turnitin to assist the editorial team in identifying potentially overlapping text that may require further examination.

Similarity reports are used as screening tools and are not treated as conclusive evidence of plagiarism. Editors assess the nature, extent, location, and source of identified similarities before determining whether editorial action is necessary.

As an editorial screening benchmark, Renaissance generally expects manuscripts to have an overall similarity score of 15% or lower.

However, the percentage alone does not determine whether plagiarism has occurred. A manuscript with a similarity score below 15% may still contain unacceptable unattributed material, while a manuscript exceeding 15% may contain legitimate similarity arising from references, properly attributed quotations, standard terminology, methodological descriptions, or other appropriately documented material.

For this reason, similarity reports are subject to editorial review and human verification. The editor may request clarification or revision whenever the pattern or source of similarity raises concerns, regardless of the numerical score.

Authors should transparently acknowledge relevant material derived from their own previously published work. Reuse of substantial previously published content without appropriate citation or disclosure may constitute inappropriate text recycling.

Legitimate overlap will be assessed according to its context, extent, attribution, and relevance to the submitted manuscript rather than solely by a numerical similarity percentage.

When potentially inappropriate overlap is identified before publication, the editorial team will assess the available evidence and may request an explanation, correction, or revision from the authors.

Depending on the nature and seriousness of the concern, editorial action may include:

• Requesting clarification from the author(s);
• Requesting correction of citations or attribution;
• Requesting revision of overlapping material;
• Returning the manuscript for substantial revision; or
• Declining the submission when serious plagiarism is established.

Editorial responses are based on the evidence and circumstances of each case rather than similarity percentage alone.

If credible plagiarism concerns are raised after publication, the journal will assess the allegation and may request information or an explanation from the author(s) and other relevant parties.

Where an amendment to the published scholarly record is required, the appropriate post-publication action will be determined under the journal's Correction & Retraction Policy.

Plagiarism is one form of research or publication misconduct. Concerns involving fabrication, falsification, authorship, citation manipulation, duplicate submission, competing interests, or other research-integrity matters are addressed under the journal's Publication Ethics and other applicable policies.

The journal may refer to relevant guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) when assessing suspected publication misconduct.