Plagiarism Information Center for IEEE Publication Volunteers
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IEEE Publications Menu
A collection of important documents and information for IEEE publication volunteers and their ad hoc committee members during the review of plagiarism complaints.
IEEE Prohibited Authors List (PAL)
The Prohibited Authors List (PAL) is an important tool in ensuring the high quality of IEEE’s publications. The PAL contains the names of authors who were found to have violated IEEE’s publishing conduct guidelines (usually because of significant plagiarism) and consequently have been banned from submitting new manuscripts to IEEE’s journals and conferences.  
 
PAL for Nominations or Appointments
Policy language has been added to the PSPB Operations Manual to codify the expanded use of the PAL, and to encourage volunteers from other organizational units to use the PAL when reviewing nominations or appointments of individuals to positions of leadership or decision-making roles within IEEE. These include EICs, associate editors, conference organizers, Society Conference VPs, and Society Pubs VPs. The policy is described in the report entitled "Appropriate Use of the Prohibited Author List" (PDF, 1 MB).
   
Volunteers who are interested in using the PAL are encouraged to send an email request to copyrights@ieee.org with:
 
  1. A brief description of his/her role within IEEE
  2. How the PAL will be used
Requests will be presented to the IEEE Vice President, IEEE Publication Services and Products for approval.
 
PAL Database
Since 2006, the IPR staff has circulated a spreadsheet each month to all PAL recipients and more recently has managed the PAL Database for IEEE volunteers to compare their list of author names against a database of prohibited author metadata. The PAL Database includes an automated tool that compares a spreadsheet of author names and email addresses against the database of prohibited authors and presents the results on screen (or in a downloadable file). The Database also allows volunteers to input an individual author’s name or email address for quick comparison against PAL metadata, or to browse the names alphabetically.
 
The PAL Database is available on the CrossCheck Portal site.  After registering through the Portal, volunteers can begin using the PAL Database immediately by logging in with their IEEE Web Account credentials. The PAL Database is always up to date with the most recent status of all prohibited authors. Volunteers who find a matching name are still advised to contact the IPR Office in order to confirm the identity of the author before taking any action.
Enhanced Plagiarism Resolution Service (EnPReS)

The IEEE Intellectual Property Rights Office is pleased to offer an Enhanced Plagiarism Resolution Service (EnPReS) to Society/Council publication volunteers who may be looking for a quick and authoritative decision on the often-challenging complaints involving the inappropriate copying by one author of another author’s work. These types of challenges may occur when a publications volunteer is hard-pressed to fit yet another responsibility into an already over-crowded schedule, or when a particular complaint appears to be especially full of potential difficulties or one that might seem to put a volunteer at some legal risk.

Through EnPReS, the IPR Office staff presents all the related data and documents for the volunteers, including:

  • marked-up copies of the original and offending manuscripts
  • draft letters and other correspondence for a variety of author-related scenarios
  • quick access to relevant PSPB policies and procedures

Most importantly, staff will propose a final decision on the case, along with the appropriate Corrective Actions as prescribed in the PSPB Operations Manual. All of the data, documents and the proposed decision are conveniently bundled in a single, convenient package for a pub volunteer's full review and final approval. Following the volunteer’s acceptance of the proposed decision, IPR Office staff will manage all remaining correspondence with the author on the volunteer’s behalf.

EnPReS is a fee-based service that goes beyond what is provided by the IPR Office in the standard Core Services. The EnPReS fee accounts for the time staff needs to prepare an EnPReS case, as well as the time and effort that EnPReS will save volunteers. Because some Societies must review many plagiarism cases each year, a bundled discount rate is offered that will reduce the total annual cost. 

Please contact the IEEE IPR Office staff for more information or questions about service fees and discounts.

 

Documents and forms

Getting Started

Checklist and Schedule (DOC, 33.5 KB): A list of necessary steps to be taken in any plagiarism case, as well as a recommended schedule for each step.  

Plagiarism Review Process Flowchart (PDF, 66 KB): A schematic representation of the process used to adjudicate plagiarism complaints.

PSPB Operations Manual (PDF, 1.2 MB): Publication policies of the IEEE as set by the Publications Services and Products Board and approved by the IEEE Board of Directors.  Section 8.2.4 addresses the process for handling allegations of misconduct and includes the Plagiarism Guidelines.

Description of Plagiarism Levels (PDF, 32.2 KB): An excerpt from the PSPB Operations Manual that describes the five plagiarism levels and the corresponding corrective actions for each level.  

Reviewing and Concluding

Case Summary Form (DOC, 41.5 KB): This form is used to report all the necessary details of Levels 1 or 2 case requiring approval from the PSPB VP.

Notices of Violation of Publication Principles: A Notice must be posted on all offending papers in Xplore for cases of Levels 1 through 4 plagiarism. Posting a Notice is optional for Level 5 plagiarism.

Letter templates

These letter templates may be used as a basis for official letters that need to be sent to parties involved in plagiarism complaints. All templates are available as Microsoft Word doc files. If another format is needed, please contact the IEEE IPR Office.

Initial Communications

Notifying Authors of Complaint (DOC, 23 KB): Sent at the outset of the case to inform the accused authors of the complaint and to allow them an opportunity to respond. The authors' response will need to be included as part of the ad hoc committee's review.

Notifying Authors of Multiple Submission/Publication (DOC, 22 KB): Sent to authors if they have submitted a manuscript to more than one publication. This letter informs the authors of IEEE policy on multiple submission and publication and may serve as part of the corrective actions described in Section 8.2.4.F of the PSPB Operations Manual.

Dismissed Case-Informing Accused Author (DOC, 21.5 KB): Sent to accused authors if a case is found to have no merit.

Dismissed Case-Informing Complainant (DOC 21.5 KB): Sent to complainants if a case is found to have no merit.

Final Decision

Informing Accused Authors

Additional Letters

Notifying Third-Party Publisher of Final Decision (DOC, 22.5 KB): Sent to outside (non-IEEE) publishers in complaints that involve plagiarized IEEE material that appears in their publication. 

Appeal Decision (DOC, 21.5 KB): Sent to notify an author of an appeal decision.

Rejecting Paper Due to Banned Author (DOC, 22 KB): Sent to a group of authors to inform them that their paper has been rejected due to one of the authors being listed on the Prohibited Authors List.

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