Case Studies

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What our customers are saying

"The automated plagiarism-review workflow that DCL implemented has been transformative for IEEE. With hundreds of thousands of papers submitted each year, we needed a solution that could deliver both speed and precision. This project not only streamlined how we evaluate high-similarity manuscripts but also gave us the confidence that every case is reviewed with consistency and transparency. The integration into our existing ecosystem, the structured reporting, and the clear escalation paths have significantly reduced manual workload for our team. Most importantly, it has strengthened our ability to uphold the highest standards of publication integrity at scale. This collaboration has been a true step forward for IEEE and for the research community we serve.”

Luigi Longobardi, PhD
Director, Publishing Ethic & Conduct
IEEE

IEEE

Research Integrity: Automated Review of Similarity Reports

Keywords: research integrity, iThenticate, Crossref, Similarity Check

Background

IEEE, a globally recognized leader in scientific publishing, manages a high volume of manuscript submissions annually. With an estimated 200,000 periodical and conference manuscripts requiring review each year, ensuring publication integrity is a significant operational challenge. Crossref Similarity Check Reports are a key part of IEEE’s process, yet high-similarity cases (30% or more) demand detailed analysis to differentiate legitimate overlap from potential plagiarism, placing a significant manual burden on reviewers. To address this challenge, IEEE partnered with DCL to design and implement an automated workflow that

reviews Crossref similarity reports, assigning verdicts to each report
extracts and stores metadata associated with each report
calculates new report metadata such as a verdict and plagiarism score taking into account legitimate uses of similar information
accelerates decision making

Solution

DCL developed and deployed an automated system to analyze high-similarity manuscripts and generate clear, actionable plagiarism analysis reports. The solution incorporates

automated extraction of key metadata using DCL’s content extraction software
analysis of each overlapping source to determine whether the duplication of text is legitimate (prepublished sources, references to the author’s own work, duplicate copies) or suspicious
automated routing of high-confidence cases directly through workflow, minimizing human intervention
escalation of low-confidence reports to IEEE for validation

DCL delivers similarity analysis reports within 2 business days and provides monthly KPI reports to ensure transparency and performance tracking.

Result

The solution delivers structured analysis, confidence-based routing, and seamless integration with IEEE’s production systems, enabling faster turnaround times, reduced manual intervention, and scalable oversight across approximately 200,000 annual submissions. High‑confidence cases bypassed human review entirely, allowing IEEE staff to focus on complex or ambiguous submissions.

Monthly reporting provides visibility into accuracy, throughput, and confidence metrics. This collaboration has strengthened IEEE’s ability to maintain publication integrity at scale while modernizing its manuscript review workflow.