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Table of Contents

Policy

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Policy statement

The Cochrane Collaboration takes measures to prevent, detect, and address plagiarised content in Cochrane Reviews. See Box 1 for a definition of plagiarism.

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This policy relates to the Methodological Expectations of Cochrane Intervention Reviews (MECIR) reporting standard 22.

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Special circumstances for Cochrane Systematic Reviews 

There are special circumstances when similarity in text is expected in Cochrane Systematic Reviews by the nature of the type of work. These special circumstances may result in text similarity software, such as CrossCheck (Table 1), finding a high level of similarity of the Cochrane Review text with text from other article(s). High levels of similarity would not always be considered plagiarism. 

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Special circumstance

Text similarity expected?

Similar methods sections

Yes, Cochrane Reviews can be expected to have a high percentage of overlap in the methods section because of standardized methods. This is unlikely to cause concern unless text is copied verbatim and without correct citation

Cochrane Review Group-specific template used for text in one or more sections

Yes, if an author uses a Cochrane Review Group template for one or more sections (e.g. background, methods), and states that a template has been used, a high percentage of overlap would be expected and should not cause concern

See ‘Use of text templates’ below for details

Protocol to review, review to update, etc.

Yes, a high percentage of overlap would be expected between certain sections of these versions (e.g. background, methods) and should not cause concern

Generic protocol
(i.e. two or more reviews based on one protocol)

Yes, a high percentage of overlap would be expected between certain sections of the protocol and the reviews that follow the protocol (e.g. background, methods). This should not cause concern, but it should be clear to the reader that the same text is used across a series of linked reviews

Split and merged reviews
(i.e. review either split into two or more reviews, or two or more reviews are combined into one review)

Yes, some overlap would be expected between the different reviews. This should not cause concern, but it should be clear to the reader that the same text is used across a series of linked reviews

Similarities with published studies (e.g. trials described in the characteristics tables/risk of bias tables)

Yes, some overlap would be accepted here. Authors should follow the guidance (see ‘Avoiding plagiarism’) to avoid the possibility of plagiarism

Co-publication of a Cochrane Review (including Protocol and Updates) or republication in official Cochrane journals or derivative products

Yes, a high level of overlap would be expected. This should not cause concern as long as the co-publication was agreed according to the policy

A non-Cochrane systematic review is converted to a Cochrane Review

Yes, a high level of overlap may be expected. This should not cause concern as long as the co-publication was agreed according to the policy

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Avoiding plagiarism

A Cochrane Review is expected to be an original piece of academic work produced by the listed authors. Material copied from other sources may be used but should always be acknowledged. If direct quotes of more than a few words of original material are included, these should generally be indicated both by using quotation marks andby citing the source (citation alone is not enough). See examples in Table 2.

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“Cochrane Overviews of reviews (Cochrane Overviews) are Cochrane Reviews designed to compile evidence from multiple systematic reviews of interventions into one accessible and usable document” (see the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Intervention, Chapter 22). Authors may wish to reuse text from the original systematic reviews in a Cochrane Overview. In this circumstance, authors should follow the standard guidance to reference source material. A high percentage of overlap with other source content (e.g. a Cochrane Review) may occur, but will not cause concern if the text has been cited appropriately.

Implementation guidance

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Detecting plagiarism using CrossRef Similarity Check (previously called CrossCheck)

CrossRef Similarity Check (previously called CrossCheck) is a partnership between CrossRef, a not-for-profit collaboration between publishers, and iParadigm’s text matching software, iThenticate. Similarity Check provides an extensive database of scientific, technical, and medical content (including material behind journal paywalls which would not be available from a simple internet search). When a document is checked in Similarity Check, it is compared with the content of this database, which is made up of published and unpublished documents, including over 40 million research articles, conference proceedings, and e-books from scientific, technical, and medical publishing.

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Getting started with CrossRef Similarity Check

Cochrane Review Groups are encouraged to use Similarity Check via the licence held by the publisher of the Cochrane Library, John Wiley & Sons. Wiley provides each Cochrane Review Group with access to Similarity Check (free of charge). Managing Editors can contact Tony Aburrow (taburrow@wiley.com; Associate Editor, Wiley) for a user name and password.

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What and when to check

Cochrane Review Groups are encouraged to, at minimum, check at least a portion of text for all protocols and reviews (including updates) when initially submitted to the Cochrane Review Group.

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b Some Cochrane Review Groups may recommend the use of template text for the Background or Methods section. If so, the authors should have made a note of this within the protocol or review. See Section 2 ( ‘Special circumstances for Cochrane Systematic Reviews’ ) for more information.
c It is possible to do this in Similarity Check; see Table 5.

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How to check

Similarity Check provides a similarity score, which indicates the total amount of text that matches text in other sources. There are two steps to using Similarity Check: (1) an automated step in which Similarity Check runs the online comparison; and (2) a manual step for someone in the Cochrane Review Group to interpret the report results and decide on next steps; see Table 4. These two steps combined can take from 5 minutes to 2 hours, but it is usually around 15 minutes. Similarity Checkprovides a list of resources for using the software: www.ithenticate.com/resources/customer-training/.

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Cochrane Review Groups should agree which editorial staff member(s) should be responsible for running the Similarity Check reports, interpreting the results, and deciding on next steps. For example, an Assistant Managing Editor/Managing Editor, Trials Search Co-ordinator or administrative assistant could run a document through Similarity Check and generate a report. The results of the report should be considered by the Cochrane Review Group’s Managing Editor and/or Co-ordinating Editor and any action to be taken decided upon.

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Similarity Check reports

There are different modes of reporting in Similarity Check (see Table 5) some of which display different information. The Document Viewer is the default setting and shows the best matches for text in a submitted document (Figure 1). The Document Viewer report has two pieces of information that will guide the editorial team to have no cause for concern or to decide if any action is needed:

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This Similarity Check Document Viewer report shows the document being checked on the left side, highlighting matching text (in this example in red, blue and green), and the context of the matching text in the match document (Spirit MJ et al) on the right side. In this example the highlighted text in red and green match other sources than the text in blue and are not shown.

The “Document Viewer” is the chosen reporting mode. Clicking on the “Text-Only Report” button will change the display to other reporting modes, which   are detailed in Table 5.

The “Similarity Index” applies to the entire document being checked and indicates the percentage of text from the entire document which overlaps with identifies sources (matched documents) and is shown in the upper right hand side of the report.

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Figures and images

Editorial teams should be aware that Similarity Check will not identify any plagiarized figures or images, such as line drawings and photographs. See section on figures and tables for details about copyright and identifying the copyright of figures in Cochrane Reviews.

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What editorial teams should do in cases of suspected plagiarism

The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) has published guidance, in the form of a flowchart, on how to deal with suspected plagiarism. This flowchart has been adapted, with permission, to The Cochrane Collaboration’s editorial process. Editorial teams with a case of suspected plagiarism should follow the process outlined in the flowchart in Figure 2. As shown in the flowchart, there is no arbitrary threshold that should be used to signify plagiarism, rather the nature of the duplicated material is as important as the incidence.

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Adapted with permission from COPE from the flowchart: “What to do if you suspect plagiarism: Suspected plagiarism in a submitted manuscript”.

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Substantial and/or repeat instances of plagiarism

Cochrane Review Groups should follow certain steps if they identify one of the following: (1) high levels of clear plagiarism within one review that the Co-ordinating Editor would like to draw to the attention of the Editor in Chief; (2) repeated instances of plagiarism at different stages of a review; or (3) from the same author(s) in different reviews.

As noted in the flowchart (Figure 2), it may be appropriate to report author(s) to academic institutions. This action, and any other very serious consequences must be discussed and undertaken in consultation with the Editor in Chief. The Editor in Chief will, however, consider situations on a case-by-case basis and decide on an appropriate course of action.

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Recording information about cases of suspected plagiarism in Archie

Storing Similarity Check reports: Editorial teams can record similarity scores with notes of what was checked in the History section of the review workflow. If relevant, copies of similarity reports may be saved in the workflow files.

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Instances of serious plagiarism will be escalated to the Editor in Chief (see Section 5.1'Substantial and/or repeat instances of plagiarism'). The Editor in Chief will monitor whether cases occur with the same authors or groups of authors, and will take appropriate action.

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Authors reusing text from their published works

An author may wish to reuse text from another publication that he or she has authored. To avoid the possibility of suspected plagiarism (see Box 2) and/or the possibility of violating copyright of the other work published by the author, the author should follow the practices outlined above (see section 3, ‘Avoiding plagiarism‘Avoiding plagiarism’) or seek permission to republish content under copyright. Editorial teams should work with authors, where this may have occurred in a review, to ensure that text has the correct attributions.

This applies predominantly to articles other than Cochrane Reviews. It is expected that authors of a Cochrane Review will reuse substantial parts of their protocol in the Cochrane Review that follows, for example, and this is one of the special circumstances outlined in Section 2. These special circumstances do not equate to plagiarism.

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The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) has published guidance, in the form of a flowchart, on how to deal with suspected redundant publication in a submitted manuscript. Editorial teams may wish to refer to this or discuss a particular situation with the Editor in Chief.

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Managing reports of suspected plagiarism in articles published in the CDSR

If editorial teams are alerted to suspected plagiarism in articles, including Cochrane Reviews, published in the CDSR, refer to the COPE flowchart for “Suspected plagiarism in a published article” (see publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts) and inform the Editor in Chief. The Editor in Chief may withdraw/retract the publication as a result.

About this policy

Contact for questions

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Contributors

The following group of people contributed to the development of this policy: Ann Jones, Anna Hobson, Gavin Stewart, Harriet MacLehose, Karin Dearness, Laura Prescott, Liz Wager, Paul Garner, Peter Tugwell, Phil Wiffen, Ruth Brassington, Sera Tort. The starting point for this policy was text drafted by Liz Wager and Phil Wiffen on publication ethics, including plagiarism. ADD DATE AND YEAR

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What's next

  •  Information about Senior Editors
  •  Review text and update as needed; including Crosscheck info
  •  Add links to training materials