Checking for Plagiarism Before Journal Submission: A Step-by-Step Guide

This guide helps you ensure your work is original and ready for journal submission, all while maintaining your workflow.

Ensuring your content is truly unique before submission is essential for journal acceptance.
Researcher reviewing manuscript for plagiarism

After polishing your abstract and confirming the methodology, the final step is ensuring your work’s originality. Using a reliable plagiarism checker can help detect accidental overlaps, improve citations, and ensure that your work stands out in the journal submission process.

Why Originality is Critical in Research

Duplicating text or ideas can create confusion and result in wasted editorial time. Most journals now run similarity checks, so conducting a plagiarism check beforehand is a smart move.

  • It helps protect your professional reputation.
  • Reduces the chances of your paper being rejected due to high similarity.
  • Strengthens your ability to paraphrase and cite accurately.
“We recommend authors verify originality before submission. A quick pre-check can prevent unnecessary delays.” — Senior Surgery Editor

A Simple Plagiarism-Check Workflow

  1. Draft your manuscript and cite sources as you write.
  2. Save a clean version of your file (DOCX/PDF with no tracked changes).
  3. Run your manuscript through a reliable plagiarism checker.
  4. Revise flagged sections by paraphrasing and adding proper citations.
  5. Re-check until high-similarity areas are resolved.
Quick Tip: Focus on context, not just percentages. Overlap in cited methods is typically acceptable, but copied discussions or conclusions are risky.

What Surgery Journals Expect from You

Before submitting to any journal, particularly in surgery, it’s important to review their submission guidelines, and ensure your manuscript follows their formatting and originality requirements.

Preparing submission for a surgery journal
Ensure your manuscript aligns with the journal's guidelines before submission.

How Red Paper™ Assists in Plagiarism Checking

Red Paper™ Plagiarism Checker compares your manuscript with a wide array of sources to help you catch and correct potential issues before submission.

Comprehensive Coverage
Includes journals, theses, conference papers, books, and the web.
Figure Integrity Checks
Helps identify reused or manipulated figures and legends.
Easy-to-Read Reports
Color-coded matches with per-source highlights for clarity.
Privacy-Focused
Your files remain confidential throughout the plagiarism check.

Real Examples of Plagiarism Detection

Methods Overlap from a Thesis

Authors detected copied content from a thesis using a plagiarism checker and corrected the citations, reducing similarity from 21% to 8%.

Image Reuse in Figure Legends

An image panel from a pilot study was reused. The plagiarism checker flagged it, prompting the authors to update the image and properly cite the source.

Created by Team, Surgery Science Journal  •  12 Aug 2025