Telling the same tale twice: Déjà vu and the shades of grey in self-plagiarism

Abstract

The integrity of medical and scientific publishing depends on responsible and honest practices by authors. Some of the practices that threaten the integrity of scientific publication include publishing the same paper in more than one journal (i.e. duplicate publication), presenting data from one study in multiple small papers (i.e. salami-slicing), copyright infringement, and text recycling [1]. While this subject is of vital interest to authors and investigators, as well as to journal editors and reviewers, it is also relevant to the readership of these publications. This chapter will explore and analyze examples of these practices.