Re: Covert Article Republishing Discovered in Emerald/MCB UP 1989-2003

[Phil Davis <pmd8@cornell.edu>]

Re: identifying other instances of article duplication

CrossRef may be in the best position to identify article duplication
because of their role registering DOIs across publishers.  In fact,
CrossRef has sent out problem reports to its customers earlier this year
with instances of duplication in metadata (i.e. same title, same authors,
different journal).  The role of CrossRef, however, is not to police the
system, but to provide a service for member publishers.  In that respect,
the best way to police the system is for publishers to make sure they have
established their own safeguards to prevent similar instances of unethical
behavior.  Without accountability, there is no way to dissuade this kind
of abuse from happening again.

--Phil Davis

At 05:57 PM 11/7/2004 -0800, Heather Morrison wrote:
>Very interesting, Phil! - in more than one sense.
>
>It sounds like you've hit on what could be an easy means to find - and
>hopefully eliminate - republishing without appropriate acknowledgement.
>
>If this is possible, it should be possible also to use automated means to
>find - and hopefully eliminate - plagiarism too.
>
>Of course this is much easier the greater the proportion of open access
>material in a given discipline, as the open access material will be
>easier to target for checking.
>
>thanks for sharing!
>
>Heather Morrison
>
>On Sun,  7 Nov 2004 20:07:01 EST liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu wrote:
>> For immediate release:
>>
>> The Ethics of Republishing: A Case Study of Emerald/MCB University Press
>> Journals
>>
>> It is unethical to republish a journal article without citing the original
>>
>> source.  Simple keyword searching of Emerald (formerly known as MCB
>> University Press) online journals from the publisher's web site has
>> identified 409 examples of articles from sixty-seven journals that were
>> republished without such notification from 1989 through 2003.  Many of
>> these articles were published simultaneously in journals within the same
>> or similar subject disciplines.  Five examples of triple publication were
>> identified.  In several cases, neither the editor nor editorial board
>> members had knowledge of this practice.  This article will review the
>> conditions of acceptable republishing plus document and provide examples
>> of republication.  It will discuss implications on the publication of
>> record, and question whether this is a case of "let the buyer beware".
>>
>> Accepted for publication in Library Resources & Technical Services.
>> Projected publication v49 n2 (spring 2005).
>>
>> Download draft manuscript from:
>> http://people.cornell.edu/pages/pmd8/
>>
>> Philip Davis, Life Sciences Bibliographer
>> Mann Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
>> (607) 255-7192 ;  (607) 255-0318 fax
>> pmd8@cornell.edu
> > http://people.cornell.edu/pages/pmd8/