Plagiarism policy

This policy will apply across all content submitted to be published by the RCR.

Key principles

The RCR seeks to ensure that all published content supports the RCR’s reputation, values or charitable status.

The RCR considers plagiarism to be the use of someone else’s work without permission, credit or acknowledgement. It includes copying (in full or in part) and paraphrasing. The RCR views plagiarism in all its forms to be unethical behavior that is unacceptable.

All authors will be subject to the plagiarism policy and will be referred to it as part of the submission process.

The RCR will consider any concern raised about content submitted for publication on a case-by-case basis in adherence with the RCR’s confidentiality requirements at all times.

The RCR reserves the right to refuse publication of content in cases where concerns have been raised about its originality or ownership.

Activities covered by this policy

• RCR Newsletter

• REAL newsletter

• Guidance and publications

• Case of the month

• Case of the day

• eLearning hub

Process

When assessing plagiarism, consideration will be given to:

• The quality (the relative value) of what has been copied. It is possible to copy the essence of a piece of work without using the original words

• How much the second author has benefitted from the skill and judgement of the original author

Authors will be asked to provide confirmation that content is original work that has not been published elsewhere, and that where necessary permission has been sought from and acknowledgement given to the source of any excerpts from other work.

All authors will be informed as part of the submission process that their submission will be subject to similarity checking using a tool selected by the RCR.

If the similarity checker indicates that the work is not original or has been published elsewhere (either by the same author or by another author) the RCR will follow the steps adapted from those published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) flowchart

Approved by Council: November 2019