Plagiarism and AI Use Policy

EBCAS upholds strict standards of academic integrity, originality and author responsibility. All submitted manuscripts must represent the authors' own intellectual work and must not contain plagiarised or improperly attributed material.

Plagiarism includes direct copying of text, ideas, data tables, figures or illustrations from any source without proper acknowledgement, excessive paraphrasing that closely mirrors the original source, self-plagiarism through the reuse of substantial portions of previously published work without disclosure, and the submission of work produced wholly or partly by others while presented as original.

The journal recognises the increasing use of artificial intelligence tools in academic writing and analysis. The use of AI-assisted tools is permitted only as a supporting aid for language refinement, grammar checking, formatting or minor stylistic improvement. The intellectual contribution, interpretation and responsibility for the work must remain fully with the authors. Authors are required to disclose the use of AI tools at the time of submission in a dedicated statement to EBCAS. 

All submissions are screened using recognised plagiarism and similarity detection software prior to peer review. Manuscripts found to contain unacceptable levels of similarity, evidence of plagiarism or indications of undisclosed or excessive AI-generated content will be rejected. In cases of limited overlap or improper attribution, authors may be requested to revise the manuscript to ensure originality and transparency.

If plagiarism or unethical AI use is identified after publication, the journal reserves the right to take corrective action, including the issuance of a correction, retraction of the article, and notification of the author's affiliated institution when appropriate. Decisions are made following editorial investigation and in accordance with accepted publication ethics standards.

By submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors confirm that the work is original, that all sources are properly cited, that AI use, if any, has been fully disclosed, and that the manuscript is not under consideration by another journal. This policy is intended to safeguard scholarly credibility and to ensure that published case studies reflect genuine academic and professional judgement.