I'm trying to submit a paper, but two different manuscripts are being prepared. One is by me and one is by a collaborator who is using my samples. I know it's unethical to reuse the same data in two different publications, so I know I shouldn't reuse the same images/data. However, if I use a different image of the same sample, would that still constitute a breach of ethics?
The two papers have a different focus. One is about synthesis and structural, morphological, and electrical characterization for samples calcined at different temperatures. The other compares one sample from the previous with two others and uses EDS and XPS to prove that the particles have a core-shell structure.
I want to make sure I don't accidentally overstep any ethical boundaries with regard to publishing.
I am not sure that this is an ethical issue so much as a practical one. A chief complaint against repeating a table, figure, or sample his that you are over-using the same dataset (sometimes known as "salami slicing," as in slicing the salami too thin).
Given the different research goals, that does not seem to be a problem here, but you could indeed use a separate version of the same sample to avoid any controversy.
It is necessary to have written permission from the 1st publisher, and then identify the image data from the 1st publication, and reference the first publication within the figure data of the 2nd publication. Then it is legally allowable to use the same image in a second publication.
A Different image than what was used in the first publication (but the same ‘general’ data), may not need this referencing, but it would be a comfortable curticy to make the reference. I have done this when reusing the same image in a “book,“ when the first use of the same image was in a previously published paper.
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