Plagiarism is defined as the act of intellectual fraud where an individual appropriates someone else's knowledge, ideas, or discoveries for their own benefit without proper acknowledgment.

Before submitting to the Spectra Clinical Case Reports Journal, authors must steer clear of certain forms of plagiarism

1. Verbatim Plagiarism: This involves directly copying text word-for-word from a source without attribution. It is one of the easiest forms to detect using string-matching techniques.

2. Paraphrasing Plagiarism: This occurs when the original text is rephrased or slightly altered while retaining the original meaning, often without proper citation. Detection requires more sophisticated methods like semantic analysis.

3. Translation Plagiarism: Translating text from one language to another without crediting the original source. This type poses unique detection challenges, often requiring cross-language plagiarism detection tools.

4. Idea-based Plagiarism: Adopting ideas or concepts from another work without proper acknowledgment. This form is particularly difficult to detect as it involves intellectual theft rather than textual similarity.

5. Mosaic Plagiarism: Also known as patchwriting, it involves copying and pasting pieces of text from various sources and blending them together. This type can be detected by identifying patterns of mixed sources.

6. Self-plagiarism: Reusing one's own previously published work without citation. This practice is controversial and often debated within academic circles.

7. Disguised Plagiarism: Includes several subtypes such as compression, dispersal, magisterial, exposition, and template plagiarism, all involving additional concealment techniques beyond simple copying.

8. Accidental Plagiarism: Unintentional plagiarism due to improper paraphrasing or citation errors. This often results from a lack of understanding of proper citation practices.

9. Structural Plagiarism: Copying the structure or organization of a work without copying the exact text. This type requires detection methods that analyze document structure and organization.

Spectra Clinical Case Reports Journal checks author manuscripts for plagiarism using the Turnitin website. Plagiarism checks are carried out at the end of revisions. The limit for similarity percentage is 20%.