Don't worry about it.The journal has obviously checked and it's okay. It's great that you can revise the paper. Just do that. And btw, don't trust close associates to do the best by you. If anyone can harm or steal your research, it is them from my experience :)

Aamar - I think to be on safer side, it is advisable to convey the whole situation to the journal editor. Suppose if your paper is accepted for publication and journal has the policy of checking for plagiarism in the last, your paper may get rejected on the basis of plagiarism. Authors need to be cautious about one thing that checking the paper, manuscript or thesis at more than one time for plagiarism increases the chances of plagiarism.

Dear Aamar- I think we always aim at improving our manuscript before being published. So this is an excellent opportunity to amend and enhance the text as needed. Check several programs if you can. In your response letter to the Editor, address all points requested by the editor and peer reviewers, and state that the whole manuscript has been reviewed and edited. I hope this helps you. Prof S. Azer

Excellent contributions so far. I have an opinion that the journal would have done the checking. I doubt if plagcheck ever comes at the end of a review process. All the same, it is a nice advice to convey the matter to the Editor, but there is nothing to panic about.

Andrew Paul McKenzie Pegman

Dr Manzoor Hussain

Samy Azer

Kamoru A. Adedokun

Thank you all for your answers. The journal has accepted my paper and sent me the letter of acceptance. It will be publish in August and its in editing stage. Should i still tell them as i have already paid its fee? Plus the plagiarism type in my paper is student paper and someone told me the journals exclude student papers in checking plagiarism report.