Microsoft Word - selfplagiarism.doc Self-plagiarisim: Dellavalle, Banks, and Ellis-1 Editorial 1 2 Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Self-Plagiarism: 3 How to Avoid Recycling Fraud 4 5 Robert P. Dellavalle, MD, PhD, MSPH,1,2 Marcus A. Banks, MLIS3 Jeffrey I. Ellis, 6 MD4 7 8 Author Affiliations: 9 1Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Denver, CO 10 2Department of Dermatology, University of Colorado at Denver and Health 11 Sciences Center, Denver, CO 12 3New York University School of Medicine, Ehrman Medical Library, New York, 13 NY 14 4Department of Dermatology, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY 15 Corresponding Author 16 Robert Dellavalle, MD, PhD, MSPH 17 Department of Dermatology 18 University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center 19 P.O. Box 6510 20 Mail Stop F703 21 Aurora, CO 80045-0510 22 TEL 303-399-8020 x2479 23 Self-plagiarisim: Dellavalle, Banks, and Ellis-2 FAX 303-315-8272 1 E-mail: robert.dellavalle@uchsc.edu. 2 [Text word count =310; references=7] 3 Funding source: none 4 Disclosed interests: Dr. Ellis is President of the post publication peer review 5 resource www.JournalReview.org. Dr. Dellavalle and Mr. Banks are respectively 6 chair and member of the advisory committee to www.JournalReview.org. 7 Self-plagiarisim: Dellavalle, Banks, and Ellis-3 1. What is self-plagiarism? 1 2 Self-plagiarism, also known as recycling fraud, occurs when an author reuses 3 text in subsequent writings without attributing the previous publication.1-3 4 5 2. Is self-plagiarism ever acceptable? 6 7 Thomas Jefferson repeated prose from previous writings in The Declaration of 8 Independence and did not cite these works.4 Few would argue this famous 9 example of self-plagiarism as unacceptable. 10 Most also agree that experts providing opinions to popular newspapers or 11 magazines need not cite specific previous writings. 12 13 4. What is copyright, and how does self-plagiarism involve copyright 14 infringement? 15 16 The US Constitution grants Congress the power to “promote the progress of 17 Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors 18 the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” Copyright is this 19 legal protection of a particular expression of an idea, but not of the facts or ideas 20 themselves.5 In the US, copyright protection extends for the life of the author 21 plus 70 years.6 22 Self-plagiarisim: Dellavalle, Banks, and Ellis-4 Authors of technical articles are often asked to assign copyright to a 1 journal’s publisher as a condition for publication—such is the case for this journal 2 (the JAAD) and its publisher (Elsevier). Subsequent republication by the author 3 of copyrighted text without citation is technically illegal. 4 5 5. Have authors been legally sanctioned for violating copyright on their own 6 words? 7 8 Few sanctions have been handed down as the courts have generally recognized 9 that “authors have special rights to their words not withstanding copyright.”3 10 11 6. If copyright law has not been enforced against authors repeating themselves, 12 then why worry about self-plagiarism? 13 14 Self-plagiarism is not acceptable in academic writing because academic writing is 15 grounded by its references, and authors are expected to cite their closely related 16 previous writing. 17 As post publication peer review and software developments make self-18 plagiarism ever easier to detect, 7 the JAAD urges all authors to promote 19 transparency with full citation of text repeated from older publications. 20 Self-plagiarisim: Dellavalle, Banks, and Ellis-5 REFERENCES 1 1. Hexham I. Academic Plagiarism Defined. 2005. Available at: 2 http://www.ucalgary.ca/~hexham/study/plag.html. Accessed 5/2/07. 3 2. Samuelson P. Self-plagiarism or fair use? Communications of the ACM 4 1994:27;8. Available at: 5 http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=179731&coll=portal&dl=ACM&CFID=6 21494517&CFTOKEN=89235197. Accessed 5/2/07. 7 3. Scanlon PM. Song from myself: an anatomy of self-plagiarism. Plagiary: 8 Cross-Disciplinary Studies in Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsification, 9 2007:2;1-10. [temporary pagination for advance online copies of articles]. 10 Available at: http://www.plagiary.org/2007/song-from-myself.pdf. Accessed 11 5/2/07. 12 4. Ellis JJ. American sphinx: The character of Thomas Jefferson. 1998;64. 13 New York: Vintage Books. 14 5. Copyright Law of the United States of America and Related Laws 15 Contained in Title 17 of the United States Code. Available at: 16 http://www.copyright.gov/title17/circ92.pdf. Accessed 5/6/07. 17 6. Hirtle PB. Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States. 18 Available at: 19 http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/training/Hirtle_Public_Domain.htm. 20 Accessed 5/6/07. 21 7. iParadigms LLC. IThenticate-Plagiarism Detection. Available at: 22 http://www.ithenticate.com/static/products.html. Accessed 5/6/07. 23 Self-plagiarisim: Dellavalle, Banks, and Ellis-6