Plagiarism is defined as taking over the ideas, creative work or written words of others, without proper acknowledgment, i.e. claiming them as one’s own, even if this occurs in relatively small amounts. Re-using in whole or in part one’s own previously published work (ideas, text, data, etc.) without citing the original source is self-plagiarism, which ranges from duplicate or redundant publication to salami-slicing. Plagiarism and self-plagiarism include the following examples: 1.Verbatim copying of text from one or more sources without enclosing the copied text in quotation marks (or using block indention) and/or without citing the source. 2.Superficial paraphrasing from one or more sources whether or not the source is mentioned. This involves small modifications such as changing, inserting and/or deleting some words, rearranging the word order or changing the grammar or tense of a sentence (patchwriting). 3.Paraphrasing or summarizing from one or more sources without acknowledging the respective primary or secondary source (exception: Common knowledge). 4.Unclear differentiation which text has been taken over or intentional hiding of the plagiarized source by not providing the citation in the respective context. References must be linked to every place in the text of a manuscript where they are used! 5.Appropriating an idea in whole or in part (exception: Common knowledge), re-using already published figures (e.g., images, graphs etc.) or presenting data and experimental results from other sources without providing a proper citation. 6.Copying or paraphrasing so many ideas or words from other sources that this accounts for the majority of the “new” work, whether quotation marks and credit are given or not. 7.Plagiarism is a clear and severe violation of ethical principles and may also be accompanied by the legal matter of copyright infringement. This is particularly true when substantial portions of a previous publication have been copied verbatim without quotation marks whether the original source refers to the same author(s) and has been cited or not. The best advice is that authors should always use their own words when preparing a new manuscript as quotations are uncommon in scientific journals and should only be used if the respective text is being discussed itself. In addition, authors warrant during submission of a manuscript, that the submitted work is original and has not been published or submitted elsewhere. The editorial office takes all cases of plagiarism, self-plagiarism or any other scientific misconduct very seriously. Authors should be aware that all manuscripts will be checked by using the plagiarism detection software CrossCheck and other resources. Any incident will result in a correction request or even rejection or retraction of an article. The editorial office withholds the right to impose further penalties such as a ban of publication in the Science and Engineering Applications (SAEA) for a period of two years.