Plagiarism and Originality

Submissions must be original and must acknowledge wording, ideas, figures, instruments, datasets, metadata, software, standards, code and results derived from earlier work.

SMF may use similarity checking and editorial assessment. Properly cited standard procedures differ from unattributed copying, disguised paraphrase, duplicate publication or recycled findings presented as new.

Authors must cite related preprints and publications and explain overlap. Serious concerns may result in rejection, correction or retraction.