Why do duplicate publications occur?
When confronted with an allegation of duplicate publication, authors offer the following answers: “We did not read the instructions,” “We wanted to reach a different audience,” “Our failure to cross reference the other article was a simple oversight,” “We perceive the overlap to be much less than the reviewer or editor thinks,” and “We now see that we broke the rules, but this was never our intent.” One answer is never given: “We thought this would be a good way of lengthening our curriculum vitae.” Like it or not, publish or perish is a reality of academic life. Productivity, measured as the number of papers published, is heavily valued by promotion committees and grant-giving agencies. But productivity and funding should not be confused with contribution to the research enterprise. The whole purpose of research is to advance understanding. And dollars received provide not even a hint of a researcher’s contribution to better understanding. Making the fundamental distinction between co
