Plagiarism

About this topic

Trust and integrity are among what readers value the most in scholarly peer-reviewed journal content. That’s why World Journal of Case Reports and Clinical Images takes the issue of plagiarism very seriously. Find out what plagiarism is (and isn’t) and how you can avoid it.

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) defines plagiarism as:

“When somebody presents the work of others (data, words or theories) as if they were his/her own and without proper acknowledgment.” Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)

For World Journal of Case Reports and Clinical Images, this applies to data, images, words or ideas taken from any materials in electronic or print formats without sufficient attribution. The use of any such material either directly or indirectly should be properly acknowledged in all instances. You should always cite your source.

This can include:

·         Abstracts

·         Seminar presentations

·         Laboratory reports

·         Thesis or dissertation

·         Research proposals

·         Computer programs

·         Online posts

·         Grey literature

·         Unpublished or published manuscripts

The use of any such material either directly or indirectly should be properly acknowledged in all instances. You should always cite your source (please see the section ‘How to avoid plagiarism’ below).

Office of Research Integrity (ORI) views

“Appropriating someone else’s idea (e.g., an explanation, a theory, a conclusion, a hypothesis, a metaphor) in whole or in part, or with superficial modifications without giving credit to its originator.” Office of Research Integrity (ORI)

What are the different types of plagiarism?

In addition to the direct copying of text, with or without paraphrasing, from a single source without proper acknowledgement, the common types of plagiarism are:

Mosaic plagiarism (patchwork plagiarism)

This is when text is lifted from a few different sources (which may include your own previous work) and put into your manuscript to create the impression of new text.

This includes rewording pieces of sourced material while keeping the structure/syntax of the original texts.

Self-plagiarism/ text-recycling

This is the redundant reuse of your own work (e.g., text, data, and images), including text translated from another language, usually without proper citation. It creates repetition in the academic literature and can skew meta-analyses if you publish the same sets of data multiple times as “new” data.

Two forms of self-plagiarism include:

·       Redundant/ duplicate publication: is the publication of what is essentially the same paper in more than one journal, but without indication that the paper has been previously published elsewhere.

·   Salami slicing (salami publication): is the segmentation of a large study which should have been reported in a single paper into smaller published studies.

Other types of plagiarism also exist. What they all have in common is that there is a lack of transparency to the original source of the material which has been used in the manuscript.

What types of secondary publication does World Journal of Case Reports and Clinical Images permit?

ICMJE recommendations

“Secondary publication of material published in other journals or online may be justifiable and beneficial, especially when intended to disseminate important information to the widest possible audience (e.g., guidelines produced by government agencies and professional organizations in the same or a different language).” ICMJE