Screaning Plagiarism

THECRED: Proceedings of the Theology and Religious Education Dialogue is committed to publishing only original scholarly work and maintaining the highest standards of academic integrity. All submitted manuscripts are screened for plagiarism and textual similarity as part of the editorial process.

Screening Tool
THECRED uses Turnitin as its primary plagiarism detection software. All manuscripts are screened upon submission, prior to being assigned to peer reviewers.

Procedure
Every manuscript submitted to THECRED undergoes plagiarism screening during the initial editorial screening stage. The Managing Editor reviews the similarity report to distinguish between genuine plagiarism and acceptable forms of textual overlap, such as commonly used academic phrases, properly cited direct quotations, standardized methodology descriptions, and reference lists.

Acceptable Threshold
The maximum overall similarity index permitted is 20%, excluding the reference list and properly cited direct quotations. Similarity from any single source exceeding 5% will be flagged for further examination by the editor.

Actions
Manuscripts with a similarity index above 20% will be returned to the author for revision before the review process begins. The author must reduce the similarity to an acceptable level and resubmit the manuscript within 14 days.

If deliberate plagiarism is detected, such as substantial unattributed copying from another published work, paraphrasing without proper citation, or reproducing significant portions of another author's text, the manuscript will be immediately rejected. The corresponding author and, where appropriate, the author's institution will be notified.

If plagiarism is discovered in a manuscript that has already been published, the editorial board will follow the COPE retraction guidelines. The article will be retracted with a formal notice, and the retraction will be clearly linked to the original article.

Self-Plagiarism
Authors must ensure that their submitted manuscript does not substantially overlap with their own previously published work. If the manuscript builds upon a prior conference presentation, working paper, or thesis, the author must disclose this at the time of submission and demonstrate that the submitted version represents a significant revision, expansion, or new contribution beyond the earlier work.

AI-Generated Content
Manuscripts that are predominantly generated by artificial intelligence tools without substantial original intellectual contribution from the author(s) will be rejected. Authors who use AI-assisted tools for language editing, literature searching, or data analysis must declare this transparently in the manuscript. The editorial team reserves the right to conduct additional screening for AI-generated content where there is reasonable suspicion.