The unethical practice of using someone else's ideas, methods, outputs, or words without explicitly citing the original author and source is known as plagiarism. When an author heavily draws from previously published work without providing the proper citations, this is known as self-plagiarism. This can involve updating a previously published work with new information or having the same manuscript published in several journals.

JPHTR is against any form of plagiarism. Manuscripts with a high similarity index during initial review will be returned to the author for revision or out-rightly rejected as deemed fit by the Editor-in-Chief. If a manuscript is discovered to be plagiarized after publication, the Editor-in-Chief will conduct a preliminary investigation, possibly with the assistance of a suitable committee formed for that purpose. The author of the plagiarized manuscript will be contacted and failure to respond after three attempts in 2 weeks will inform the journal to contact the author’s institute.

In an effort to avoid plagiarism issues, authors are advised to cross-check their work for plagiarism using plagiarism-checking software such as iThenticate/Turnitin or any affordable software before submission.