Plagiarism Policy

NGABDHIH: Journal of Community Service and Development has a strict policy against plagiarism in all its forms. Plagiarism—presenting someone else's work or ideas as one's own, whether intentional or unintentional—is considered a serious breach of academic and publication ethics.

All submitted manuscripts are screened for plagiarism using industry-standard software (such as Turnitin or iThenticate) before being sent out for peer review. The following thresholds are applied:

• Similarity Index below 20%: Acceptable for proceeding to peer review.
• Similarity Index 20%–40%: The manuscript will be returned to authors for revision and paraphrasing before resubmission.
• Similarity Index above 40%: The manuscript will be immediately rejected.

If plagiarism is discovered after publication, the journal will:

• Contact the authors and request a formal explanation.
• Notify the authors' institutional affiliations.
• Issue a formal retraction notice if the plagiarism is confirmed, which will be permanently attached to the article record.

Self-plagiarism (verbatim re-use of substantial portions of the author's own previously published work without appropriate citation) is also not permitted. Authors are responsible for ensuring proper citation of all sources used in their manuscripts.