Responsibility of the Authors

Before submitting any work to SIMJ the author(s) must make sure that:

1. the author(s) owns all of the rights in the work including the copyright in the work;
2. the work is the author(s)’s own original work and is not copied wholly or substantially from any other work or material or any other source;
3. the work does not infringe the copyright or other rights of any third party;
4. the author(s) has the right to license or assign (as applicable) the copyright in the work;
5. the work or any version of it has not previously been published or submitted for publication except as specifically informed to SIMJ at the time of submission; and
6. the author has not submitted the work or any substatially similar work to another publication and will not do so unless SIMJ decides not to publish the work.

Plagiarism policy

Policy in Relation to Plagiarism, Infringement of Copyright, Moral Rights and Submission of Multiple Publications.

What to do when a work has been submitted, but not published

1. Noresponse or unsatisfactory response: If no response is received or an unsatisfactory response is received to SIMJ’s query: the work may immediately be withdrawn from the editorial/review process and may not be published;
2. SIMJ may inform the author(s) that no further action with respect to progressing the reviewing/editorial handling of the work will take place and that SIMJ will not consider for publication works written by the author(s) for a period of 5 years; and the editor or editorial board of SIMJ publications and members of staff employed by SIMJ may also be informed of these actions only on a need to know basis.
3. Response admitting mistake: In the case of minor mistakes (for example omitting to include proper citation of the source of reproduced material) SIMJ may request from the author(s) some wording for use in noting any correction to the online version by adding a note to the metadata or adding an additional separate PDF, or in the case of a print version for use in printing an erratum note in a subsequent issue before progressing the editorial process.
4. In the case of misconduct, SIMJ may adopt any or all of the responses and actions listed above.
5. Submitting a similar work to more than one publication: If prior to publication, it is found that an author(s) has submitted a work or substantially similar work concurrently to more than one publication without informing SIMJ, SIMJ will inform the author

6. (a) that it believes the same work or substantially similar work had been submitted to another publication and

   (b) whether SIMJ will reject the work or would like to discuss publication of the work with the publisher of the other publication.

7. If prior to publication, it is found that the work or a substantially similar work has already been published previously in another publication, SIMJ will inform the author that it believes the same work or a substantially similar work has been published in another publication and SIMJ may reject the work.
8. Any repeat occurrence may result in a similar process to that described in section 9.1 above except that SIMJ may not consider for publication works written by the author(s) for a period of 1 year.

What to do when a work has already been published

If SIMJ has published a work and subsequently becomes aware of matters which give rise to a reasonable suspicion that the work contains plagiarised material or material that infringes copyright or moral rights then SIMJ may immediately withdraw the work from the relevant publication.
In respect of SIMJ Digital Library, the metadata, (Title and Authors) may be retained, but the PDF may be removed and replaced by a notice indicating the work is currently unavailable; and If SIMJ withdraws publication of a work in this manner SIMJ may then follow the procedure set out in sections 11 and 12 below. If SIMJ becomes aware that a work may contain plagiarised material or infringe copyright or moral rights belonging to a third party after publication, SIMJ will inform the author(s) that an issue has arisen and ask for the author(s)’s explanation of the apparent problem. The following is a non-exhaustive list of actions that may be taken by SIMJ in such circumstances:

1. No response or unsatisfactory response: If no response is received or an unsatisfactory response is received to SIMJ’s query: the work may be withdrawn from the relevant publication:
   1. In respect of SIMJ, the metadata, (Title and Authors) may be retained, but the PDF may be removed and replaced by a notice indicating the work has been retracted.
   2. SIMJ may request that it will simultaneously takes down the PDF from their database and leaves in place similar metadata and a similar retraction notice to that retained on SIMJ website.
   3. If the work has also been printed, in the next available issue of the publication SIMJ may publish a retraction note (included in the contents list) with respect to the work
SIMJ may inform the author(s) that the work will be withdrawn from the relevant publication and that SIMJ may not consider for publication works written by the author(s) for a period of 5 years; and the editor or editorial board of SIMJ publications and members of staff employed by SIMJ may also be informed of these actions only on a need to know basis.
2. Response admitting mistake: If the author(s) responds admitting a mistake: In the case of minor mistakes (for example omitting to include proper citation of the source of reproduced material) SIMJ may request from the author(s) some wording for use in noting any correction to the online version by adding a note to the metadata or adding an additional separate PDF, or in the case of a print version for use in printing an erratum note in a subsequent issue. In the case of misconduct, SIMJ may adopt any or all of the responses and actions listed above.
3. Similar material published in more than one publication Where it is discovered after publication of the work that the work or a substantially similar work has been published previously in another publication, SIMJ will inform the author that it believes the same work had been published in another publication and SIMJ may withdraw the work from SIMJ publication. Any repeat occurrence may result in a similar process to that described above except that SIMJ may not consider for publication works written by the author(s) for a period of 1 year.