© 2005 Foundation for Promotion of Cancer Research
Editorial |
Duplicate Submission and Publication Must be Avoided
The world of journal publishing has experienced much development and change over the past few years. Many institutions are now looking upon creating Institutional Repositories, which archive the work done by members of the institute. The most famous of all, the National Institute of Health, has announced that authors whose studies have been funded by the Institute must submit their paper to the repository. This was followed by an announcement from the Research Council, UK. Self-archiving is also becoming popular as it is easy for an author to post their paper on personal websites.
If authors of JJCO wish to submit their articles to any such repositories, or post their articles on the web, they are welcome to do so as long as JJCO is cited as the original place of publication, and a link is provided to the final version of the article on HighWire. This will ensure that readers are aware of the final version of the paper.
Such developments are welcome, as they help disseminate scientific work to a wider audience. However, such ease of online publication may be causing some authors to be less concerned with the rules governing copyright and publishing generally. I regret to announce that one of our authors has been found to have published the following almost identical manuscript in JJCO and in World Journal of Surgical Oncology.
- Zhigang Z, Wenlv S. Prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA) expression in human prostate cancer tissues: implications for prostate carcinogenesis and progression of prostate cancer. Jpn J Clin Oncol 2004;34(7)414–419.
- Zhigang Z, Wenlv S. Prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA) expression in human prostate cancer tissues and its potential role in prostate carcinogenesis and progression of prostate cancer. World J Surg Oncol 2004, 2:13.
- Zhigang Z, Wenlv S. Prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA) expression in human prostate cancer tissues and its potential role in prostate carcinogenesis and progression of prostate cancer. World J Surg Oncol 2004, 2:13.
The authors submitted the manuscript online to JJCO on March 27, 2004, and to WJSO on March 30, 2004. It was accepted in JJCO after revision on May 9, 2004, and in WJSO on May 10, 2004. With regard to our e-mail enquiry into duplicate publication, the authors explained that they had regarded the two journals as different types of publication, JJCO for print and WJSO for online publication, and claimed that their action should not be classified as a duplicate submission. The Journal considers this a sophistry which does not justify the authors' misconduct.
Duplicate submission is a form of scientific fraud and should be avoided at all cost as it wastes the valuable time and limited resources of the editorial and peer-review system, which usually operates with the goodwill and voluntary effort of many scientists in the field. In order to prevent similar problems in future, I would like to make clear JJCO's policy on duplicate publication.
Authors should not submit manuscripts that are under review in any other journal. Authors must withdraw their manuscript from any other journal before submitting to JJCO.
Needless to say, submitting a manuscript that has been published in another journal is not acceptable. If in any special case the author believes it is in JJCO's advantage to publish a paper that has been published elsewhere, it will require notification and explanation to the JJCO editorial office, and permission from the journal in which the paper was originally published.
If a manuscript includes tables or figures that have already been published, the authors are required to cite the original publication, and if it is other people's work, obtain permission from the original author.
If any author is found to have violated these rules, a corregendum will be published for the article. The corregendum will be linked to the published article, and will be seen by all readers who access the article online. The author will not be allowed to submit articles to JJCO in the future.
I hope that our authors understand JJCO's policy, and continue to publish their work with the Journal.
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