Abstract
Scholarly misconduct causes significant impact on the academic community. To the extremes, results of scholarly misconduct could endanger public welfare as well as national security. Although self-plagiarism has drawn considerable amount of attention, it is still a controversial issue among different aspect of academic ethic related discussions. The main purpose of this study is to identify two concerns including what is self-plagiarism in academic journals, conceivable point of contention, based on journal editors’ viewpoint. Between 1990 and 2015, content of 57 editorials indexed in Scopus and WoS and 75 cases of self-plagiarism raised by international editors in COPE were analyzed to explore how journal editors identify these problems. The results show that self-plagiarism can be categorized to four facets, including its identification, types, norm, and remedy. And the editors are concerned about the issues about the detection software, salami-slicing and overlapping publication, the harm of copyright, and the retractions of published articles. Results from this study not only could obtain in-depth understandings on self-plagiarism among academic journal articles but also being applied on establishing academic guidelines in the future.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the american psychological association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Anderson, M. S., & Steneck, N. H. (2011). The problem of plagiarism. Urologic Oncology: Seminars and Original Investigations,29(1), 90–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urolonc.2010.09.013.
Andreescu, L. (2013). Self-plagiarism in academic publishing: The anatomy of a misnomer. Science and Engineering Ethics,19(3), 775–797. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-012-9416-1.
Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/publications/australian-code-responsible-conduct-research-2018.
Babalola, O., Grant-Kels, J. M., & Parish, L. C. (2012). Ethical dilemmas in journal publication. Clinics in Dermatology,30(2), 231–236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clindermatol.2011.06.013.
Berlin, L. (2009). Plagiarism, salami slicing, and Lobachevsky. Skeletal Radiology,38(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00256-008-0599-0.
Berquist, T. H. (2013). Self-plagiarism: A growing problem in biomedical publication! American Journal of Roentgenology,200(2), 237. https://doi.org/10.2214/ajr.12.10327.
BioMed Central. (2014a). Editorial policies: Text recycling. Retrieved from https://www.biomedcentral.com/getpublished/editorial-policies#text+recycling.
BioMed Central. (2014b). How to deal with text recycling. Retrieved from http://media.biomedcentral.com/content/editorial/BMC-text-recycling-editorial_guidelines.pdf.
Bird, S. (2002). Self-plagiarism and dual and redundant publications: What is the problem? Science and Engineering Ethics,8(4), 543–544. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-002-0007-4.
Bretag, T., & Carapiet, S. (2007). A preliminary study to identify the extent of self-plagiarism in Australian academic research. Plagiary: Cross-Disciplinary Studies in Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsification,2, 92–103.
Broome, M. E. (2004). Self-plagiarism: Oxymoron, fair use, or scientific misconduct? Nursing Outlook,52, 273–274.
Chrousos, G. P., Kalantaridou, S. N., Margioris, A. N., & Gravanis, A. (2012). The ‘self-plagiarism’ oxymoron: Can one steal from oneself? [editorial]. European Journal of Clinical Investigation,42(3), 231–232. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2362.2012.02645.x.
Code of Conduct for Scientists - Revised Version. (2013). Science Council of Japan. Retrieved from http://www.scj.go.jp/en/report/Code_of_Conduct_for_Scientists-Revised_version.pdf.
Code of Practice for Research: Promoting good practice and preventing misconduct. (2009). UK Research Integrity Office. Retrieved from http://www.ukrio.org/wp-content/uploads/UKRIO-Code-of-Practice-for-Research.pdf.
Collberg, C., & Kobourov, S. (2005). Self-plagiarism in computer science. Communications of the ACM,48(4), 88–94.
Collberg, C., Kobourov, S., Louie, J., & Slattery, T. (2003). SPlaT: A system for self-plagiarism detection. Paper presented at the IADIS international conference WWW/INTERNET Algarve, Portugal.
Committee on Publication Ethics. (2013). Text recycling guidelines. Retrieved December 30, 2013, from http://publicationethics.org/text-recycling-guidelines.
Cronin, B. (2013). Self-plagiarism: An odious oxymoron. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology,64(5), 873. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.22966.
Dellavalle, R. P., Banks, M. A., & Ellis, J. I. (2007). Frequently asked questions regarding self-plagiarism: How to avoid recycling fraud. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology,57(3), 527. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2007.05.018.
European Science Foundation. (2017). The European code of conduct for research integrity. Retrieved from https://www.allea.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ALLEA-European-Code-of-Conduct-for-Research-Integrity-2017.pdf.
García-Romero, A., & Estrada-Lorenzo, J. (2014). A bibliometric analysis of plagiarism and self-plagiarism through Déjà vu. Scientometrics,101(1), 381–396. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-014-1387-3.
Green, L. (2005). Reviewing the scourge of self-plagiarism. M/C Journal, 8(5). Retrieved from http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0510/07-green.php.
Guidelines for the Conduct of Research in the Intramural Research Program at NIH. (2016). National Institutes of Health. Retrieved from https://oir.nih.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/sourcebook/documents/ethical_conduct/guidelines-conduct_research.pdf.
Halupa, C., & Bolliger, D. (2013). Faculty perceptions of student self plagiarism: An exploratory multi-university study. Journal of Academic Ethics,11(4), 297–310. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-013-9195-6.
Halupa, C., & Bolliger, D. (2015). Student perceptions of self-plagiarism: A multi-university exploratory study. Journal of Academic Ethics,13(1), 91–105. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-015-9228-4.
Halupa, C., Breitenbach, E., & Anast, A. (2016). A Self-plagiarism intervention for doctoral students: A qualitative pilot study. Journal of Academic Ethics,14(3), 175–189. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-016-9262-x.
Holsti, O. R. (1969). Content analysis for the social sciences and humanities. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Horbach, S. P. J. M. S., & Halffman, W. W. (2019). The extent and causes of academic text recycling or ‘self-plagiarism’. Research Policy,48(2), 492–502. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2017.09.004.
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. (2016). Overlapping publications. Retrieved from http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/overlapping-publications.html.
Kokol, P., Završnik, J., Železnik, D., & Vošner, H. B. (2016). Creating a self-plagiarism research topic typology through bibliometric visualisation. Journal of Academic Ethics,14(3), 221–230. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-016-9258-6.
Lancet. (2009). Self-plagiarism: Unintentional, harmless, or fraud? [editorial]. Lancet,374(9691), 664. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(09)61536-1.
Loui, M. C. (2002). Seven ways to plagiarize: Handling real allegations of research misconduct. Science and Engineering Ethics,8, 2002.
Martin, B. R. (2013). Whither research integrity? Plagiarism, self-plagiarism and coercive citation in an age of research assessment. Research Policy,42(5), 1005–1014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2013.03.011.
Ministry of Science and Technology. (2017). Academic ethics guidelines for researchers by the ministry of science and technology. Retrieved from https://www.most.gov.tw/most/attachments/3d81520a-b403-4603-b8ef-b191c38ce80c?.
Neville, C. W. (2005). Beware the consequences of citing self-plagiarism. Communications of the ACM,48(6), 13.
Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Pierson, C. A. (2015). Salami slicing: How thin is the slice? Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners,27(2), 65.
Plagiarism.org., glossary. Retrieved December 30, 2013, from http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/glossary.
Roig, M. (2015). Avoiding plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and other questionable writing practices: A guide to ethical writing. Retrieved from https://bsc.ua.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/plagiarism-1.pdf.
Rosenzweig, M., & Schnitzer, A. E. (2013). Self-plagiarism: Perspectives for librarians. College and Research Libraries News,74(9), 492–494.
Rosing, C. K., & Cury, A. A. D. (2013). Self-plagiarism in scientific journals: An emerging discussion [editorial material]. Brazilian Oral Research,27(6), 451–452.
Samuelson, P. (1994). Self-plagiarism or fair use? Communications of the ACM,37(8), 2125.
Scanlon, P. M. (2007). Song from myself: An anatomy of self-plagiarism. Plagiary,2, 1–10.
Sun, Y. C., & Yang, F. Y. (2015). Uncovering published authors’ text-borrowing practices: Paraphrasing strategies, sources, and self-plagiarism. Journal of English for Academic Purposes,20, 224–236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2015.05.003.
Text Recycling. Committee on publication ethics. Retrieved from http://publicationethics.org/files/u661/Text%20recycling_notes%20from%20Forum%20meeting_final.pdf.
Wager, E., Barbour, V., Yentis, S., & Kleinert, S. (2009). Retraction guidelines. Retrieved December 29, 2013, from http://publicationethics.org/files/retraction%20guidelines.pdf.
Zhang, Y., & Jia, X. (2012). A survey on the use of CrossCheck for detecting plagiarism in journal articles. Learned Publishing,25(4), 292–307. https://doi.org/10.1087/20120408.
Acknowledgements
This study is funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, under Grant No. MOST 103-2410-H-032-067.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Appendices
Appendix 1: List of editorials containing self-plagiarism-related articles
Journal title | Publish year | Vol. no. |
|---|---|---|
Archives of Disease in Childhood | 1990 | 65:12 |
Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic and Neonatal Nursing | 2003 | 32 |
Nursing Outlook | 2004 | 52 |
Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences | 2005 | 21:3 |
AU Journal of Technology a | 2006 | 10:2 |
Australasian Physics & Engineering Sciences in Medicine | 2007 | 30:4 |
Canadian Journal of Cardiology | 2007 | 23:2 |
Canadian Journal of Nursing Research | 2008 | 40:2 |
International Journal of Nursing Studies | 2008 | 45:9 |
Journal of Medical Toxicology | 2008 | 4:2 |
Journal of Tehran University Heart Center | 2008 | 3:1 |
Pramana—Journal of Physicsa | 2008 | 70:5 |
Research in Nursing & Health | 2008 | 31:4 |
Sadhana a | 2008 | 33:2 |
American Journal of Roentgenology | 2009 | 192:4 |
Journal of Molecular Medicine | 2009 | 87:1 |
Solar Physics a | 2009 | 260:1 |
The Lancet | 2009 | 374:9691 |
European Journal of Cancer Care | 2010 | 19:3 |
Journal of Nepal Paediatric Society | 2010 | 30:2 |
Library & Archival Security a | 2010 | 23:2 |
Canadian Association of Radiologists Journal | 2011 | 62:3 |
International Urogynecology Journal | 2011 | 22:8 |
Journal of General Internal Medicine | 2011 | 16:1 |
Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care | 2011 | 22:3 |
Oncologist | 2011 | 16:10 |
ACS Nano a | 2012 | 6:1 |
American Journal of Roentgenology | 2012 | 199:4 |
European Journal of Clinical Investigation | 2012 | 42:3 |
IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine a | 2012 | 19:4 |
Vaccine | 2012 | 30:50 |
American Journal of Roentgenology | 2013 | 200:2 |
American Journal of Roentgenology | 2013 | 201:5 |
Annals of Biomedical Engineering | 2013 | 41:1 |
Bosnian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences | 2013 | 13:3 |
Brazilian Oral Research | 2013 | 27:6 |
Pramana – Journal of Physicsa | 2013 | 81:1 |
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology a | 2013 | 64:5 |
Journal of The American Society for Mass Spectrometry a | 2013 | 24:7 |
Journal of Wildlife Management a | 2013 | 77:8 |
Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy | 2013 | 21:4 |
Research in Nursing & Health | 2013 | 36:2 |
Research in Nursing & Health | 2013 | 36:3 |
Research Policy a | 2013 | 42:5 |
Advances in Health Sciences Education | 2014 | 19:1 |
Applications in Plant Sciences a | 2014 | 2:7 |
BMC Medicine | 2014 | 12 |
Human Resource Development Review a | 2014 | 13:1 |
Journal of Clinical Nursing | 2014 | 23:1–2 |
New Zealand Journal of Medical Laboratory Science | 2014 | 68:1 |
Nursing Research | 2014 | 63:1 |
Online Brazilian Journal of Nursing | 2014 | 13:2 |
American Journal of Neuroradiology | 2015 | 36:6 |
Journal of Hydrometeorology a | 2015 | – |
International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine | 2015 | 6:1 |
Journal of The American Association of Nurse Practitioners | 2015 | 27:2 |
Journal of Wildlife Management a | 2015 | 79:3 |
Appendix 2: List of self-plagiarism issues covered by the COPE cases
COPE case # | Case title | Self-plagiarism | Overlapping publication | Redundant publication |
|---|---|---|---|---|
15-16 | Profusion of copied text passages | ✓ | ||
15-14 | Duplicate publication and removal of article | ✓ | ||
14-10 | Possible self-plagiarism and/or prior publication | ✓ | ✓ | |
13-11 | A case of salami slicing | ✓ | ||
12-30 | Retraction of the first article in the case of duplicate publication | ✓ | ||
12-27 | Submitted paper already published elsewhere | ✓ | ✓ | |
12-21 | A case of duplicate publication | ✓ | ||
12-17 | Duplication of data | ✓ | ||
11-23 | Possible overlapping publications/data | ✓ | ||
11-21 | Duplicate publication in possibly four papers | ✓ | ||
11-20 | Duplicate publication allegation | ✓ | ||
11-18 | Retraction or correction? | ✓ | ||
11-17 | Self-plagiarism of review article | ✓ | ||
11-14 | Is this previous publication? | ✓ | ||
10-21 | Dual publication | ✓ | ||
10-18 | Self-plagiarism? | ✓ | ||
10-16 | Concerns over research by an author in numerous, separate publications | ✓ | ||
10-14 | Supervisor publishes PhD students work | ✓ | ||
10-01 | Case of duplicate publication detected after 9 years | ✓ | ||
09-21 | Self plagiarism | ✓ | ||
09-20 | Alleged unauthorized use of data and possible dual publication | ✓ | ||
09-07 | Duplicate publication or salami publication? | ✓ | ✓ | |
09-06 | Duplicate publication | ✓ | ||
09-03 | Multiple publication of research | ✓ | ||
08-29 | A case of duplicate publication? | ✓ | ||
08-19 | Simultaneous publication | ✓ | ||
08-11 | Clear case of duplicate publication? | ✓ | ||
08-05 | Retrospective trial registration | ✓ | ||
07-42 | Duplicate publication in a non-English language journal | ✓ | ||
07-28 | Inadvertent discovery of salami submission | ✓ | ||
07-27 | Author dispute over internal report | ✓ | ||
07-11 | Plagiarism case | ✓ | ||
07-09 | Duplicate publication? | ✓ | ||
06-28 | Possible duplicate publication | ✓ | ||
06-20 | Duplicate publication | ✓ | ||
06-02 | Duplicate publication | ✓ | ||
05-23 | Duplicate publication | ✓ | ||
05-15 | Allegation of fraudulent publication | ✓ | ||
05-07 | Salami publication | ✓ | ||
05-01 | Dual publication | ✓ | ||
04-29 | Redundant publication | ✓ | ||
04-06 | Attempts to draw attention to potential duplicate publication | ✓ | ||
04-05 | Dual publication and attempted retraction by the author | ✓ | ||
03-09 | Potential duplicate publication | ✓ | ||
03-08 | Is it duplicate publication when the first study is referenced in the second paper? | ✓ | ||
02-14 | Dual publication | ✓ | ||
02-03 | Duplicate submission to two journals and previous duplicate publication uncovered | ✓ | ||
02-02 | Duplicate publication | ✓ | ||
01-33 | Redundant publication and a question of authorship | ✓ | ||
01-27 | Query triplicate publication? | ✓ | ||
01-25 | Duplicate publication | ✓ | ||
01-20 | The single authored, unbelievable, randomised controlled trial | ✓ | ||
01-18 | Duplicate publication | ✓ | ||
01-15 | Duplicate submission, overlap of papers, and a referenced paper that was not in press | ✓ | ||
01-13 | Duplicate publication | ✓ | ||
01-12 | Attempted redundant publication | ✓ | ||
01-11 | Duplicate publication | ✓ | ||
01-10 | Redundant publication | ✓ | ||
00-09 | The study that may or may not already have been published | ✓ | ||
00-03 | Editorial compliance with duplicate publication | ✓ | ||
99-20 | Dual publication may be necessary in some situations | ✓ | ||
99-06 | Yet another case of duplicate publication | ✓ | ||
98-32 | Redundant publication by an editorial board member | ✓ | ||
98-28 | Redundant publication | ✓ | ||
98-21 | Duplicate publication and now fraud? | ✓ | ||
98-19 | The double review | ✓ | ✓ | |
98-18 | Triplicate publication with possibly different data in each | ✓ | ✓ | |
98-15 | Questions of authorship, duplicate publication and copyright | ✓ | ||
98-12 | Possible duplicate publication? | ✓ | ✓ | |
98-08 | Redundant publication? | ✓ | ✓ | |
98-04 | Redundant publication | ✓ | ||
98-01 | Blatant example of duplicate publication? | ✓ | ||
97-19 | The tortuous tale of a paper, a letter and an editorial | ✓ | ||
97-06 | Attempted redundant publication? | ✓ | ||
97-03 | Disagreement between a reviewer and an author | ✓ |
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lin, WY.C. Self-plagiarism in academic journal articles: from the perspectives of international editors-in-chief in editorial and COPE case. Scientometrics 123, 299–319 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03373-0
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03373-0