We submit to COPE a case regarding the suspected multiple publication of research on four separate occasions in four different journals.
Close inspection of the articles in question revealed that the author had directly copied and reused extensive sections of text, including tables in all four articles. After this matter was bought to the attention of the Editor of Journal A, the chronology detailed below was pieced together. It demonstrates that there is significant overlap in the dates the articles were submitted and copyright forms signed. This, coupled with the extent of the similarities between the articles, lead us to believe that the author would have been aware they were submitting near identical articles to multiple journals over a short space of time.
Upon this realisation the authors were contacted according to the COPE guidelines and the lead author cooperated with us in putting together the information below. Because of the complexity of the case, the number of journals and the time frames involved, we would be grateful if COPE could advise us on the correct course of action.
• In January 2002, three UK authors submitted a paper to Journal A based on the lead author’s PhD thesis. This paper was accepted by Journal A in October 2003 and a copyright assignment form was signed in November 2003. This article appeared in Journal A in January 2005.
• In July 2002, the lead author presented a conference paper based on the same PhD research and submitted it to Journal B. This too was accepted and a copyright agreement was signed in June 2003. This article went on to appear in Journal B in January 2004. This paper acknowledges the conference it was given at.
• In June 2003, the lead author gave another conference paper based on their PhD research which was subsequently published in Journal C in December 2003. The copyright assignment form for this article was signed in September 2003.
• In January 2006, another paper was published in Journal D, again based on the same PhD research. We do not know when this was submitted or when the copyright form was signed.
The advice from COPE was to consult the flowchart for “redundant publication in a published paper”. The flowchart advises that you check the degree of overlap. If it is substantial, contact the authors. If an unsatisfactory response is received, the editor should consider publishing a notice of redundant publication or retraction. Sometimes the author makes a genuine mistake or the instructions to authors are not clear enough (does your journal say that submitted work should be original and not submitted elsewhere) or the author is very junior. In such cases writing to the author explaining the situation and outlining the expected behaviour is sufficient. However, if the editor is satisfied that this is not a simple error and an unsatisfactory response has been received, he should consider contacting the author’s institution and asking them to investigate. The Forum would also advise contacting the other journals.
We have agreed with the publisher that the paper will be retracted.