Plagiarism Screening

Bima Loka: Journal of Physical Education is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication integrity. All submitted manuscripts undergo a rigorous plagiarism screening process in accordance with the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

1. Screening Tool
All manuscripts submitted to Bima Loka: Journal of Physical Education are screened for plagiarism using Turnitin, a globally recognized and industry-standard plagiarism detection software. Turnitin cross-checks submitted manuscripts against an extensive database of academic journals, books, websites, and previously submitted works.
2. Screening Stage
Plagiarism screening is conducted at two stages of the editorial process:
Stage Description
Upon Submission Initial screening is performed by the editorial team immediately after a manuscript is received, before it is sent for peer review.
Prior to Publication A second screening is conducted on the final revised manuscript after peer review and prior to layout/typesetting, to ensure the accepted version remains within the acceptable similarity threshold.
3. Similarity Threshold
The maximum acceptable overall similarity index is 20%. Manuscripts exceeding this threshold will be returned to the author(s) for revision before further processing.

The following elements are excluded from the similarity calculation:
  • References and bibliography
  • Properly cited and quoted text (within quotation marks)
  • Common phrases, standard terminology, and methodology descriptions
  • Title, author names, and institutional affiliations

Important: The overall similarity score alone is not the sole basis for editorial judgment. Each source match is reviewed individually by the editorial team. A manuscript with a similarity score below 20% may still be rejected if a single-source match is disproportionately high or if the context indicates intellectual dishonesty.
4. Scope of Research Misconduct Covered
This journal's screening and misconduct handling policy covers all forms of academic and research integrity violations, including but not limited to:
Type Description
Plagiarism Copying text, ideas, data, or images from other sources without proper attribution, whether verbatim or paraphrased.
Self-Plagiarism Reusing substantial portions of the author's own previously published work without disclosure or citation, including text recycling and redundant publication.
Citation Manipulation Inappropriate inclusion of citations that do not contribute to the scholarly content, including coercive citation, self-citation inflation, or citing sources that were not actually consulted, with the intent to artificially inflate citation counts.
Data Fabrication Inventing research data, results, or findings that were never actually collected or observed, and presenting them as genuine.
Data Falsification Manipulating, altering, or selectively omitting research data, images, or results to misrepresent the actual findings of a study.
Duplicate Submission Submitting the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal without disclosure.
Image Manipulation Inappropriately altering figures, photographs, or other visual data in a way that misrepresents the original results or observations.
Authorship Misconduct Including individuals as authors who did not contribute meaningfully to the work (gift authorship), or omitting individuals who did (ghost authorship).
5. Investigation Procedure
When a suspected case of research misconduct is identified — by editors, reviewers, or third parties — the editorial team will follow the COPE flowcharts and guidelines for handling such cases. The procedure is as follows:
Step Action
1 The editor-in-chief is notified and the manuscript or published article is flagged for investigation.
2 The author(s) are contacted and given the opportunity to respond to the allegation with supporting evidence.
3 The editorial board reviews all evidence and makes a determination based on the COPE guidelines.
4 Appropriate action is taken (see Section 6), and the author(s) and relevant institution(s) are formally notified of the outcome.
6. Consequences of Detected Misconduct
Depending on the severity of the misconduct, the following actions may be taken:
  • Before acceptance: The manuscript will be immediately rejected and the author(s) notified with a full explanation.
  • After publication: The article will be retracted and a formal retraction notice will be published in the journal. The author(s) and their affiliated institution will be notified.
  • Correction: In cases of minor, unintentional errors, a corrigendum or erratum may be issued in lieu of full retraction.
  • Repeated or severe misconduct: The author(s) may be permanently banned from submitting to this journal, and the case may be referred to the relevant institutional authority.
7. Author's Responsibility
Authors are strongly encouraged to screen their manuscript using Turnitin or any equivalent tool prior to submission. By submitting a manuscript, author(s) confirm that:
  • The work is entirely original and has not been published or submitted elsewhere.
  • All sources, data, and ideas that are not the authors' own have been properly cited and acknowledged.
  • The reported data are genuine and have not been fabricated, falsified, or selectively manipulated.
  • All citations included in the manuscript are relevant to the scholarly content and have been genuinely consulted.
  • All listed authors have made a meaningful intellectual contribution to the work.
This plagiarism screening and research misconduct policy is aligned with the principles and flowcharts of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). For the full publication ethics statement including editor and reviewer responsibilities, please refer to our Publication Ethics page.