Journal of Education and Health Promotion

Investigating the root causes of duplicate publication in research articles

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

. Payman Adibi
. Maryam Kianpour 1
. Shahin Shirani 2

1 Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, School of Nursing and Midwifery,

2 Cardiovascular Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract
Duplicate publication is the republication of an article in which a lot of important parts overlap with
the published copy. This issue is nearly at the top of the list of subjects, which medical journal
editors discuss. this study was conducted with the purpose of investigating the publication
patterns and determining it’s root causes in research articles in the Isfahan University of Medical
Science and to find a solution to prevent it. In a cross sectional study , All the discovered cases
of duplicate publication, which were referred to the ethics committee of the Isfahan University
of Medical Science during 2005–2008 were selected to be investigated through a descriptive
method. After confirmation about the case of a duplicate publication, the requisite investigation
was conducted through interviews and review of the correspondence and documentaries, and
then, a radical line was charted. After investigating the cases and classifying the radical causes
and incidents, categorization and definition of duplicate publication are presented. Eight out
of nine republished articles belonged to the first category of Baily’s index (copy publication)
and one was in the third category (minimum publishable unit: Salami slicing). The results of
the present article indicate that, the scientific community of the country is not yet familiar with
the professional principles of scientific and research affairs. According to the results of this
investigation, it is recommended to take official action against duplicate publication cases,
violation of copyright, and also to have strict instructions against this unethical practice.

Keywords

Copy publishing
scientific misconduct
overlap publication
research manuscripts 
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Source of Support: Nil, Conflict of Interest: N
Journal of Education and Health Promotion
Volume 5, Issue 2
Winter 2015
Pages 1-4

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