Olusola,

The simple answer to this is that there are no pros - only cons. All legitimate journals insist that you declare that you have only submitted exclusively (copyright policy) to their journal - until they have either accepted or rejected it. In today's competitive environment - I can see the temptation to submit to more than one journal because of waiting times etc. However, if exposed - it can potentially really damage the reputation of the author/s. It's not worth the risk.

Olusola,

The simple answer to this is that there are no pros - only cons. All legitimate journals insist that you declare that you have only submitted exclusively (copyright policy) to their journal - until they have either accepted or rejected it. In today's competitive environment - I can see the temptation to submit to more than one journal because of waiting times etc. However, if exposed - it can potentially really damage the reputation of the author/s. It's not worth the risk.

Thanks for the insightful answer Dean

Fully agree with Dean : only Cons. The major problem with such unethical practice is putting one's professional reputation at risk.

Do not even think about it. What happens if both accept it? You will have some explaining to do and may compromise the remainder of your scientific career.

I have never done so and don't see and compelling reason to do so. The practice

risks causing more problems than helping in any significant way.

I would not propose to send a ms to two or more journals at the same time. This ist most often prohibited by ethical as well as reasons by legal restrictions and journal politics (see author guidelines of most journals).

Dean Whitehead and William Murray Thomson if you find out that the first journal where a paper has been published is listed in predatory (Beall's), would such a paper be okay for second re-submission without respecting their right to request from their editorial system?. Thank you for sharing from your great knowledge. @ doctor Olusola Bamisile, this is a nice question that is worth it on RG platform discussion for the up-growing researchers.

I fully agree to the answers above, its unethical and immoral. Since I have worked with two journals as Assistant Editor. This act has a lot of legal repercussions and can lead to litigation. Therefore, wait for the natural review time-frames, submit a bit early if you are short of time. Imagine if two or more blind peer reviewers receive the same paper from two journals for review where would your credibility. stand? I saw a faculty member getting terminated & others getting black listed because of violating ethical codes of research publications.

The risk you get out of such action is much more the benefit. You may be included in the black list for some journals.

Yes, it doesn't matter whether the journal is a predatory one or not - the principle is the same. This makes it important for us to choose a target journal very carefully.

Some journals forget to inform about the result of your submission. So, you should inform your withdrawal. If they agreed, you can send your article to a new journal.

No, I did not do that because I consider it wrong

I believe it is an ethical discussion since in submission you declare that you are sending the article only to a journal. If you send for two you are lying in the statement, lacking in ethics.

Dear Aline,

it is not only a question of ethics. It is a copyright-relevant breach of the rules, which may have significant consequences for institutions and the author himself.

Since you declare not only to send it just to one journal, you also declare to delegate copyright-relevant privileges to editors (e.g. to send it to others / reviewers, other editors etc) and the journal itself (e.g. for review and maybe publication/ right of possession). Therefore, avoid sending of manuscripts to different journals at the same time.

Well, this question sure did get a number of responses. Indeed, submission to multiple journals of the same article at the same time is not acceptable. There is no discussion.

Does this mean that it never happens? Indeed it does happen and there is no doubt that it should not happen.

The worst, if it's possible to rank order our most unfavorable experiences, occurs when an article is submitted to one journal and ends up published in another journal without the first Journal ever having received a withdrawal. The worse worst, didn't I just say something about finding it hard to order these, occurs when an article is withdrawn after the reviews are in and shared with the author and then that author withdraws the article, answer some of the questions that were raised in the review and then sends the article to a different journal.

As you can see from the number of responses and the strength of emotion in those replies, this is highly unethical and breaches rules of copyright. Submit to one journal at a time ~ keep your reputation in tact, follow the same rules as the rest of us, and stop upsetting the ResearchGate community ;)

Dear Olusola Bamisile ,

In my view, submission of one paper to multiple journals is highly unethical and risky too. If you assume you may increase your chances of being accepted by multiple submissions, I would say that it's the probability of rejection which might get even higher instead. As William Murray Thomson and Steven E Eckert rightly mentioned, there is always the possibility of getting published in one journal without any withdrawal from the first journal/journals! As in this case, the rules and ethics of your target journal, however unintentionally, are ignored, there might be some undesirable consequences for both the institution and the author's reputation.

I have never heard of any concrete cases; have you? What has typically happened?

While we all consider it as opposing the publication policy and a dangerous game, it's equally important for the journals to expedite their review time. I had one time submitted an article and underwent 2 years plus review process. Also, I am currently on another one almost clocking one year by next month, even though I have written withdrawal letters 2 times previously yet the Editor sent me a copy for correction recently in deafening against my withdrawal notice.

In summary, I think authors suffer a lot in the hands of many journals who flaunt their article rules or the information stated on their page. Is there any policy saving the authors from this toughness, too?.

authors suffer a lot in the hands of many journals who flaunt their article information stated on their page. Is there any policy saving the authors from this toughness, too? Kamoru A. Adedokun

Mohammed I. Rushdi thank you for bringing my question forth and boldy for a wide readership.

I used to think of doing in this way when I was doing master's degree in order to graduate soon with a publication. However, it is not an acceptable way in academic and research publication ethics. Later, I came to understand that if one manuscript is accepted by both journals, it can be only published in one journal. Then what happens to the other journals? That means the author of that manuscript is wasting the reviewers' time and publishing space for others.