The rules adopted in the journal INSTED: Interdisciplinary Studies in Education & Society for dealing with suspected plagiarism have been developed based on the Code of Ethics for Researchers adopted by the General Assembly of the Polish Academy of Sciences on the 25 of June 2020, the 3rd edition,  (https://instytucja.pan.pl/images/2021/CodeofEthicsForResearchersThirdEdition.pdf), Resolution 24/2018 of the Senate of the University of Lower Silesia of 27.09.2018 on the adoption and approval of the Code of Publication Ethics of the DSW Scientific Publishing House and good practices recommended by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

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In the case of submitted manuscripts, the journal INSTED requires the authors to declare (1) whether the submitted manuscript is original and owned by the authors, (2) whether it is published for the first time, (3) whether the material used in the manuscript does not infringe the rights of third parties, and (4) whether it is not currently under review in another journal; in the case of empirical research involving human subjects, the authors also declare whether their research has received a positive opinion of the ethics committee.

The editorial board use PlugScan anti-plagiarism software at the pre-review stage, and in the case of finding 30% of borrowings in the text under review, they have the right to reject the text on a desk-rejection basis. Information about the reasons for rejection is sent to the authors by e-mail. If the anti-plagiarism test of the submitted manuscript reveals less than 30% of borrowings, the text is submitted for review.

The reviewer informs the editorial office of the possibility of plagiarism in the article under review, and each suspicion raised by the reviewer is carefully checked by the response in consultation with them. This procedure is strictly confidential. 

If the suspicion of plagiarism turns out to be justified and supported by strong evidence (e.g. collating the text of the manuscript and identical fragments of the borrowed text), the editorial office informs the author of the suspicion of plagiarism, presents them with the evidence and asks the author to explain the situation in writing. If the explanation is unsatisfactory or if the author admits to having committed plagiarism, the manuscript is rejected. The editors officially inform the heads of the institutions that the authors represent of the reasonable suspicion of plagiarism and provide them with the evidence. The authors and the reviewer are informed of the action taken by the editorial office.

In the case of a satisfactory explanation (e.g. an unintentional error resulting from the authors' inexperience), the editorial office decides either to reject the manuscript or to thoroughly revise it and eliminate the abuses indicated. The action of the editorial board is communicated to both the authors and the reviewer.

If the authors fail to respond for a period of 30 days, the editorial office informs the heads of the institutions the authors represent of the reasonable suspicion of plagiarism and forwards the evidence to them. The editors shall inform the reviewer of their actions by e-mail.

If the suspicion of plagiarism turns out to be justified, but the copied passages constitute only a small percentage of the total text, the editors will ask the author to reformulate the text, e.g. to put the copied phrases in inverted commas, to express the thoughts in their own words, etc. The editors inform the reviewer of their action. After the author(s) have corrected the text, the reviewing process continues.

If it turns out to be justified in terms of the duplication of the text previously published by the author, the editorial board asks the authors to explain the situation in writing, and then decides either to reject the manuscript or to proceed it after appropriate corrections. In the case of a significant number of intentional repetitions and the lack of a satisfactory explanation by the authors, the editorial board rejects the text and then informs the heads of the institutions which the authors represent of the situation and forwards the evidence to them.

If the suspicion of plagiarism in the submitted manuscript proves to be unfounded, the editorial office will communicate its position to the reviewer and the review process will continue.

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In the case of a suspicion of plagiarism in a published article, the journal INSTED immediately – after a reader reports such information – takes steps to verify this suspicion.

If the suspicion of plagiarism is sufficiently confirmed (large fragments of text and/or data have been used without acknowledging the authorship), the editorial board forwards its findings to the authors, together with the evidence, and asks them to explain the situation in writing.

In the event of an unsatisfactory explanation or an admission by the authors that plagiarism has been committed, the editors publish a note of withdrawal of the publication on the journal's website, inform the publisher (or the editorial board) of the plagiarised text of the situation, and – if possible – the affected authors. Notification of plagiarism is forwarded to the heads of the institutions which the authors represent. The authors and the reader who reported the suspected plagiarism are informed of the action taken.

In the event of a satisfactory explanation (e.g. an unintentional error due to inexperience), the editors send the authors an appropriate instruction and inform the reader who has reported the suspected plagiarism of the steps taken.

If the authors do not respond within 30 days, the editors shall inform the heads of the institutions which the authors represent of the reasonable suspicion of plagiarism and forward the evidence to them. The editors shall, by e-mail, inform the reader who has reported the suspected plagiarism of their actions.

If the suspicion of plagiarism is confirmed to a minor extent (e.g. only short passages are copied and the authorship is correctly attributed), the editors shall send the authors an appropriate instruction, and in justified cases - in agreement with the authors - shall publish a correction on the journal's website, in which they shall be informed of the inclusion of references to the omitted texts in the article indicated. The editors shall inform the reader who has reported a suspicion of plagiarism of their decision.