Plagiarism Guidelines

The Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) strictly adheres to the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) plagiarism policy. Research articles submitted for publication in ISSI’s journal, Strategic Studies, go through a rigorous similarity/plagiarism check process. The ISSI editorial team authenticates the plagiarism/similarity check process by using Turnitin software. As per HEC policy the Similarity Score Index (SSI) must not exceed 19%. With reference to using the Turnitin to generate originality reports, highlighting Similarity Score Index (SSI), the Strategic Studies follows the following policies and procedures:

  • The in-house editors will check a submission for three times only (explained in section 2, 3 and 4 of the HEC plagiarism policy available at their website). Once at the time of initial submission and two more chances ─ subject to approval for further processing by the Internal Evaluation Committee ─ provided to improve the quality of research article. A failure to improve the quality of the paper and to meet the HEC criteria, the Internal Evaluation Committee/in-house editors may take necessary action including rejection, penalties and reporting of the matter to the HEC.
  • After the submission of a research article by the researcher, at the internal evaluation stage, an initial comprehensive Similarity Score Index report would be generated . This initial report would help in-house editors/evaluator(s) to verify the overall Similarity Score Index (SSI). Once the committee approves the paper for further processing, the report will also help the researcher to reduce its overall SSI.
  • A second SSI report would be generated when a researcher submits the revised research article. At that stage, in-house editors/evaluator(s) may generate a SSI report by excluding “Quotations, Bibliography and Matches.”
  • A third SSI report would be prepared, if needed, before the paper is sent for peer review and publication process.
  • In-house editors are responsible for performing all the relevant tasks related to plagiarism check.