Plagiarism Policy

All manuscripts submitted to the Musamus Journal of Physical Education and Sport (MJPES) will be screened for plagiarism and self-plagiarism using plagiarism detection tools, including iThenticate and relevant web-based search engines.

The editorial team will carefully evaluate the similarity report before making an editorial decision. Manuscripts with a high level of similarity, particularly those exceeding 30%, may be rejected before peer review. Manuscripts with moderate similarity, particularly around 10% or more, may be returned to the author for clarification, revision, or further editorial assessment.

Similarity percentages are not used as the only basis for editorial decisions. The managing editor and editorial board will also consider the nature of the similarity, the source of overlap, the use of proper citation, and whether the similarity indicates plagiarism, self-plagiarism, or acceptable scholarly overlap.

Article Withdrawal

Article withdrawal applies only to manuscripts that have been accepted or are in press but have not yet been formally published with complete volume, issue, page, or DOI information.

Withdrawal may be considered when an article contains serious errors, has been accidentally submitted or published in duplicate, or is found to violate the journal’s publication ethics policy. Such violations may include multiple submission, false claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, or other forms of academic misconduct.

If an article is withdrawn, the article content may be removed and replaced with a withdrawal notice stating that the article has been withdrawn in accordance with the journal’s publication ethics policy.

Article Retraction

Article retraction may be considered for published articles that involve serious breaches of professional ethical standards, including multiple submission, false claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent or fabricated data, duplicate publication, serious authorship disputes, or other forms of publication misconduct.

Retraction may also be used to correct serious errors in submission or publication that invalidate the reliability or integrity of the article.

The decision to retract an article may be initiated by the author(s), editor, publisher, or based on advice from members of the scholarly community. All retraction decisions will be made carefully and transparently in accordance with the journal’s publication ethics policy and COPE guidelines.

When an article is retracted, the following procedure will be applied:

1. A retraction notice titled “Retraction: [Article Title]” will be published in a subsequent issue of the journal and listed in the table of contents.
2. The retraction notice will clearly state the reason for the retraction and will be issued by the author(s), editor, and/or publisher, as appropriate.
3. In the electronic version, a link will be provided between the retraction notice and the original article.
4. The original article will remain available to preserve the scholarly record, but it will be clearly marked as retracted.
5. The PDF version of the article will contain a watermark on each page indicating that the article has been “Retracted.”
6. The article metadata, including title, authors, DOI, and publication details, will be retained.

Article Removal: Legal Limitations

In extremely limited circumstances, it may be necessary to remove an article from the journal’s online platform. Article removal will only be considered when the article is clearly defamatory, infringes the legal rights of others, is subject to a court order, or may pose a serious risk if acted upon.

In such cases, the article metadata, including the title and authors, will be retained. However, the full text will be replaced with a notice indicating that the article has been removed for legal reasons.

Article removal is not intended to replace correction, withdrawal, or retraction procedures. This policy is designed to protect the integrity, transparency, and reliability of the scholarly record.