In the context of Philippine law and cases, "Plagiarism is a concept more understood in academic circles as an offense against academic integrity anathema to the strict standards of originality of scholarly works which members of the academic community subscribe to.” The Supreme Court has also described Plagiarism as the "deliberate and knowing presentation of another person's original ideas or creative expressions as one's own".
Self-plagiarism involves the reuse of one's own previously published work and submitting it for publication to another journal without proper citation or acknowledgement of the prior work.
Academic integrity entails honesty, original work, and a deep understanding of the importance of citation and academic respect. For researchers, self-plagiarism violates copyright and can affect the impact factor of both journals and researchers. A decline in the impact factor can have adverse effects on academic reputation and may limit future publication opportunities.
In an academic writing setting (e.g. research papers), the direct use of AI language tools like Chat GPT and Google Gemini, without proper attribution, could be considered plagiarism. Academic institutions typically require original work and proper citation when using external sources. Copying and pasting content generated by AI language tools without proper acknowledgment would likely violate academic integrity guidelines. However, if the content generated by an AI language tool is incorporated into academic or publishing contexts, proper citation to the relevant human-authored sources should be provided, as appropriate.
Plagiarism is not considered a crime under the Philippine law but if committed under certain circumstances, it can amount to criminal violation of the Intellectual Property Code, the E-Commerce Act or the Cybercrime Prevention Act. While cybercrimes generally include cyber-attacks, online fraud, cybersex and child pornography, Sec 6 of the Cybercrime Prevention Act also states that it covers “all crimes defined and penalized by the Revised Penal Code, as amended, and special laws.” Copyright infringement under Section 217 of R.A. No. 8293 or the Intellectual Property Code (IPC) can be punishable by one to three years imprisonment and a fine ranging from P50,000-P150,000 for the first offense; three years and one day to six years imprisonment and a fine ranging from P150,000-P500,000 for the second offense; and six years and one day to nine years imprisonment and a fine ranging from P500,000 to P1,500,000 for the third and subsequent offenses.
Plagiarism becomes a legal issue if the alleged plagiarized material violates the copyright protection of the original author.
A preprint is a full draft research paper that is shared publicly before it has been published or even peer-reviewed by a given journal or conference. It may have been given a digital object identifier (DOI), and, in turn, it can be cited in other research papers.
In general, preprint is not a publication but a preliminary version of a publication. Therefore, it is not regarded as self-plagiarism. However, some journals do not allow preprints, and they will reject your paper when they find the preprint or when their plagiarism checker wrongly indicates plagiarism due to the preprint. Hence, many researchers make their preprints publicly available only after acceptance of the paper by a journal, and only if the journal allows preprints.
SciEnggJ does not consider preprint as formal publication. However, we encourage authors to disclose any preprints of their research papers, whether online or not, as a best practice. Please inform SciEnggJ if such preprints exist prior to submission and ensure they are cited in the list of sources within your submitted article.
The acknowledgement section of SciEnggJ articles is not integral to the academic work. Generally, it is the only part of the article where the author has flexibility in terms of writing style and content. Hence, it should not be regarded as academic plagiarism per se.
The author of a work has copy or economic rights, as well as moral rights over the work. The author has the exclusive right to carry out, authorize or prevent the:
Reproduction of the work or substantial portion of the work;
Dramatization, translation, adaptation, abridgment, arrangement or other transformation of the work;
The first public distribution of the original and each copy of the work by sale or other forms of transfer of ownership;
Rental of the original or a copy of an audio-visual or cinematographic work, a work embodied in a sound recording, a computer program, a compilation of data and other materials or a musical work in graphic form, irrespective of the ownership of the original or the copy which is the subject of the rental;
Public display of the original or a copy of the work;
Public performance of the work; and
Other communication to the public of the work.
Moral rights confer the following on the author of a work:
To require that the authorship of the works be attributed to him, in particular; the right that his name, as far as practicable, be indicated in a prominent way on the copies, and in connection with the public use of his work;
To make any alterations of his work prior to, or to withhold it from publication;
To object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification of, or other derogatory action in relation to, his work which would be prejudicial to his honor or reputation; and
To restrain the use of his name with respect to any work not of his own creation or in a distorted version of his work.
Copyright infringement occurs when there is a violation of any of the exclusive economic or moral rights granted to the copyright owner. It may also consist in aiding or abetting such infringement. The IP Code also provides for the liability of a person who at the time when copyright subsists in a work has in his possession an article which he knows, or ought to know, to be an infringing copy of the work for the following purposes: (a) selling or letting for hire, or by way of trade offering or exposing for sale or hire, the article; (b) distributing the article for the purpose of trade, or for any other purpose to an extent that will prejudice the rights of the copyright owner in the work; or (c) trade exhibit of the article in public.
There is a lack of established international standard on how much percentage of Plagiarism is acceptable in a manuscript. Nevertheless, SciEnggJ promotes the principle of zero (0) plagiarism for original papers, emphasizing the importance of producing entirely unique content. However, for journals and other scholarly works, a limited similarity of up to 15% may be deemed permissible, provided proper citation and attribution practices are diligently followed.
References
https://www.doj.gov.ph/news_article.html?newsid=133
https://news.abs-cbn.com/ancx/culture/spotlight/07/16/22/when-is-plagiarism-punishable-by-lawa-lawyer-tells-us
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