A medical student brought a case of duplicate publication in two journals in the same specialty to the attention of an editor of a third journal. The article in Journal A was published in 1997 and the article in Journal B was published in 1999. The editor wrote to both journals and asked them to investigate. The editor wrote several times over two years before he retired. The editor received a response only from Journal A, stating that the only concern was a possible copyright infringement if the author had not obtained permission to reprint the tables in Journal B, but that policing copyright was not the journal’s business. The letter continued: “The author did not violate [Journal A] policy in that we were first to publish. We have notified the editor of [Journal B] that they may want to investigate the matter further.” The editor replied that the main problem was with Journal B, but stating that it still appeared to be a case of misconduct and that the normal practice was for both journals to publish a joint statement drawing readers’ attention to that fact. The editor also felt that Journal A should inform the head of the author’s institution of the malpractice, and at their discretion, ban the author for a period. The editor felt that it was important that something was done to counter the belief that it is perfectly acceptable to publish the same work twice. And without making some kind of public statement, the journal would appear to be condoning the behaviour. The editor of Journal A responded: “Where [Journal A] has been transgressed upon we have done just what you propose. However, in this case we have not been. We do not have grounds for such action.” - Is there any further action the editor could take?
- Good practice would be for all journals involved to publish a notice of duplicate publication. - The journal editors’ actions were inadequate. The options were: (a) seek to publish the story of the duplicate publication—this is difficult as it is effectively trial by media; (b) contact the owners of the journals; (c) go directly to the authors’ institutions. - Draw the journal editors and owners’ attention to good practice as set out in the COPE guidelines and the Code of Conduct for Editors. - The editor should also consider contacting the authors’ institutions directly.