• Similarity is interpreted editorially
• No fixed similarity percentage determines a decision
• Duplicate publication and citation manipulation are ethics concerns

What may count as plagiarism or overlap

• Unattributed copying or close paraphrase of another work.
• Reuse of an author's own published text without disclosure or appropriate citation.
• Duplicate or redundant publication of substantially the same work.
• Translated plagiarism or reuse from another language without attribution.
• Misleading reuse of figures, tables, data, images, maps, or analysis.
• Citation manipulation intended to distort the scholarly record.

Legitimate overlap

Some overlap may be legitimate, including references, standard methods descriptions, properly quoted material, disclosed preprints, theses, conference abstracts, datasets, and other prior dissemination that is transparent to editors and readers.

Authors should disclose related prior work at submission so editors can judge originality and transparency in context.

Editorial process

otstest1 may use similarity reports or other checks before, during, or after peer review. Reports are interpreted editorially and are not judged by a fixed percentage alone.

Authors may be asked to explain overlap, revise text, add citation, provide documentation, or withdraw duplicate material. Serious cases may lead to rejection, correction, expression of concern, retraction, or notification of relevant institutions where appropriate.