DUAL SUBMISSION, SALAMI SLICING, REDUNDANT PUBLICATION, OR ALL THREE?
Case
Editor A wrote to editor B, indicating that one of the reviewers of a paper submitted to Journal A contained material that had been submitted at about the same time to Journal B. Editor A requested a copy of the paper submitted to Journal B. Editor B responded, confirming that the paper in question had been submitted to Journal B (submission date two weeks earlier than the paper submitted to Journal A), but had been rejected eight weeks later after external peer review. Editor B sent a copy of the rejected paper to editor A. Editor A examined the two papers and confirmed that there was “some degree of overlap” between the two and also felt that there was a degree of “salami slicing.”
COPE advice
This was a case of an intelligent reviewer catching a dual submission serendipitously. Sending a copy of the manuscript under review to another editor might be considered a breach of confidentiality with the author, but in cases of suspected misconduct, such action was part of the peer review process. Public interest in preventing fraudulent publication overrides confidentiality with the author.
Sometimes authors write up different aspects of one research study and send them to different journals, so dome degree of overlap is inevitable, but as long as the authors openly declare what they have done, this is acceptable practice. They should cross reference or include a copy of the companion paper.
What would happen if an editor requests the author to provide the companion paper and the author refuses? The COPE guidelines on redundant publication state that at submission, authors should disclose details of related papers. In cases where a reviewer alerts an editor to the possibility of duplicate publication the duty to the author is to ask them to respond to the allegation and provide the other paper.
The two journal editors should write “joint letters” to the authors about the matter, pointing out why this is an important issue and requesting a response within a specified time limit.
