Redundant publications, or piling up the medals. Getting published is not the Olympic Games

Excerpt

A paper submitted, accepted, and published as an original publication is received with respect and excitement as providing new data never released before. The information contained in such a paper may stimulate further research, directly influence clinical practice, or contribute to the production of new directives or guidelines via its inclusion in meta-analyses or systematic reviews. Reporting the same data, in part or in whole, in several publications constitutes duplicate, redundant, or multiple publication when substantial overlap exists across these publications, whatever their type (except short abstracts). Covert duplicate publication is considered scientific misconduct, unethical behavior, fraud, or criminal behavior by most editors of scientific journals [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. This is exactly our position at Intensive Care Medicine, primarily because duplicate publication defeats the main goal of a journal, which is to ensure the integrity of science. A journal’s editor has several modest and humble roles, but a main objective is to maintain trust and confidence between readers and authors, as this constitutes the basis of the publication system. The reader might well ask, “Why would I want to apply the results of a publication to my patients if I have no trust in the fairness of the authors or the integrity of the peer-review process?” …