Self-Plagiarism and Textual Recycling: Legitimate Forms of Research Misconduct

Abstract

The concept of self-plagiarism frequently elicits skepticism and generates confusion in the research ethics literature, and the ethical status of what is often called "textual recycling" is particularly controversial. I argue that, in general, self-plagiarism is unethical because it is deceptive and dishonest. I then distinguish several forms of it and argue against various common rationalizations for textual recycling. I conclude with a discussion of two instances of textual recycling, distinguishing them in terms of their ethical seriousness but concluding that both are ethically problematic.

Education Journal Editors’ Perspectives on Self-Plagiarism

“…Such critics often seem to view plagiarism through the lens of ownership and theft, and then infer that the notion of self-plagiarism is incoherent because stealing from oneself is impossible. Yet the predominant view is that misleading as the term might be, self-plagiarism is unethical primarily because it is deceptive and misleading (Anderson and Steneck 2011;Bruton 2014;Martin 2013). Authors typically must pledge that their work is original at the time of submission, and publishers, editors and readers generally assume and expect originality in academic publications.…”

References

“…As indicated earlier, these types of self-plagiarism are more prevalent and likely more detrimental to science because they involve the dissemination of earlier published data that are presented as new data, thereby skewing the scientific record. Bruton (2014) andothers (e.g., von Elm, Poglia, Walder &Tramer, 2004) have discussed various other types of duplication. Below are some of the most common forms.…”

“…Also known as Salami Publication or Least Publishable Unit, data segmentation is a practice that is often subsumed under the heading of self-plagiarism, but which, technically is not necessarily a form of duplication or of redundancy as Bruton, 2014 has correctly pointed out. It is usually mentioned in the context of self-plagiarism because the practice often does include a substantial amount of text overlap and possibly some data as well, with earlier publications by the same author/s.…”

Highlighting common pitfalls to avoid when writing the medical education manuscript

“…It involves using ideas from the author's previously published article without citing that article. It is considered by some to be unethical (Bruton 2014) and may result in copyright infringement by the new publisher, with accompanying legal issues (Dellavalle, Banks, Ellis 2007;Rosing & Cury 2013). Although the concept remains controversial (Bretag & Mahmud 2009;Andreescu 2013;Joob & Wiwanitkit 2016), we recommend erring on the side of caution: provide citations for everything you use from another source that is not general information.…”