Authors, editors and contributors have an obligation to ensure that all the original work (including the text, ideas, data, research findings, ideas and hypotheses etc...) presented in a manuscript is their own work, and that their prior writing and the work of others is fully acknowledged. Following good academic practice is all that is required to avoid plagiarism issues. Universities offer guidance and training on plagiarism, below you can find links to definitions of plagiarism and resources.

Accusations of plagiarism are serious and, whether deliberate or accidental, can have a detrimental impact on the academic reputation of the person accused.  We take plagiarism seriously and will always take immediate action to investigate complaints and remove a publication, or part of a publication, from sale if necessary.

Due to the complex and long term nature of academic collaborations some cases of plagiarism can be difficult for the publisher to judge. In such cases it is important that complaints are considered in a fair process by experts in the appropriate academic societies and/or relevant institutions' ethics committees. We will usually temporarily withdraw a publication from sale while such complaints are being considered but require the conclusion of all such investigations before deciding a permanent course of action.  Depending on the outcome, the book or article may then be:

• Rereleased for sale with no changes.
• Permanently removed from sale.
• A chapter may be permanently removed from a title.
• A publication may be reissued with amendments.
• Universities offer guidance and training on plagiarism. 

Here are some useful links:

https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/guidance/skills/plagiarism
https://www.plagiarism.admin.cam.ac.uk/
https://academicintegrity.unimelb.edu.au/#plagiarism-and-collusion
https://guides.nyu.edu/plagiarism
https://ombud.msu.edu/academic-integrity/plagiarism-policy.html

COPE also publish advice on plagiarism for editors and publishers.  While this is written for journals, the advice is also relevant for books:

Guidelines for retraction of articles and when a correction is appropriate
https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines-new/guidelines-retracting-articles