Plagiarism Policy

Plagiarism is an act of copying text, or results without proper citation of the original author. Public Health Scholars will not consider any manuscript having any kind of plagiarism including direct plagiarism, ‘patchwork’ plagiarism, mosaic plagiarism, self-plagiarism, auto-plagiarism or duplicate publications. Manuscript sent to our journals must be original and must not have been published before or be sent to another publication at the same time. The submission of manuscripts for peer review is contingent upon the author ensuring that any previously published or unpublished data used in the work have been suitably credited, cited, and that the necessary permissions have been obtained. The journal editors consider all material in good faith and believe that their journals have full permission to publish every part of the submitted material, including illustrations. In case of any type of plagiarism, the editors of the journal evaluate each of these cases on individual merits and decide further action. When plagiarism is discovered post publication, the original publication will be corrected or retracted, depending on the overall integrity of the published study. This journal uses Similarity Check – Crossref services for assessing plagiarism

Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Assisted Technology

At submission, the journal should require authors to disclose whether they used artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots, or image creators) in the production of submitted work. Authors who use such technology should describe, in both the cover letter and the submitted work in the appropriate section if applicable, how they used it. For example, if AI was used for writing assistance, describe this in the acknowledgment section. If AI was used for data collection, analysis, or figure generation, authors should describe this use in the methods. Chatbots (such as ChatGPT) should not be listed as authors because they cannot be responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the work, and these responsibilities are required for authorship. Therefore, humans are responsible for any submitted material that included the use of AI-assisted technologies. Authors should carefully review and edit the result because AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. Authors should not list AI and AI-assisted technologies as an author or co-author, nor cite AI as an author. Authors should be able to assert that there is no plagiarism in their paper, including in text and images produced by the AI. Humans must ensure there is appropriate attribution of all quoted material, including full citations