Whether overlapping papers are ever justified
| Percentage who think both articles are justified | ||
|---|---|---|
| Question | Editors (N=71) | Authors (N=64) |
| *The percentage of respondents who answered “don’t know” to the question was between 10% and 20%. | ||
| Is it justified to publish two similar articles if the second article is published in: | ||
| a symposium proceeding in a non-peer reviewed journal supplement | 31 | 67 |
| the internet, in a limited access area | 31* | 53* |
| the internet, in a public access area | 17* | 44* |
| a non-English language journal | 30 | 34 |
| a journal for a substantially different audience | 15 | 19 |
| Is it justified to publish two articles that have or are: | ||
| identical text | 0 | 0 |
| exact duplication of important findings | 0 | 3 |
| exact duplication of background information | 14 | 31 |
| segmented (“salami sliced”) articles | 30 | 66 |
| a letter to the editor and research article with the same outcome data | 45 | 66 |
| important findings that are similar and outcome data that overlap by … | ||
| … 10% | 39 | 66 |
| … 50% | 4 | 25 |
| … 100% | 1 | 5 |
| important findings that are different and outcome data that overlap by … | ||
| … 10% | 51 | 69 |
| … 50% | 32 | 53 |
| … 100% | 23 | 30 |