Ultimately i believe theft is theft, whatever is the field or matter..

Plagiarized Article attached. Original Article published in Nepal Journal of Epidemiology is attached with the Question.

Dear Sir

Most of the journals at present detect plagiarism during submission stages itself. I have seen the journal editors put it as "Retraction Notice" showing the authors and title of the article which was plagiarized and seeking apology.

The tendency of most Editors and reviewers to look down their noses on references older than 5-10 years makes authors be not interested in looking for what has already been done by their predecessors and ignore it (even if not wlillingly). I think this is much worse for the development of science, to say nothing about intellectual property rights, than the most blatant plagiarism is. The former is a rule, the latter is a rarity.

Publication means one's one work. Fell proud to publish the original work of self. As researchers, we have to follow ethics. There is no dearth of issues for research. Please avoid Plagiarism, which is unhealthy. lalitha kabilan

Dear Lalitha, would be plagiarism less unhealthy if there were "dearth of issues for research"? In reality, there is enough for any honest researcher, while theft is a theft is a theft.

This is an obvious case of plagiarism. It is advisable to contact the editors of both journals and bring the case of plagiarism to their attention. Be factual and point to specific examples. Though others may disagree, I would only communicate with the journal editors and avoid the temptation of contacting the offender or the offender's university.

Dear Dr. J. Patrick Kelley ,

We are contacting with all the authorities to find out a remedy for this problem including world association of medical editors.

Dr. Brijesh Sathian

Managing/ Chief Editor Nepal Journal of Epidemiology

Good for you. It's one of those things each of us can do to ensure that all applied and academic fields are maintained for future generations. I know it's difficult, and it's really not how anyone wishes to spend their time. Maybe let everyone on ResearchGate how this situation progresses, so that we all know good practices/mistakes in dealing with such issues in the future?

Very interesting to know that more than 75% contenent is that of original paper. They have just changed the Nepal to West Bangal and edit the results. Rest all ( Background, Methods, Conclusions and Key words) are the same. Here I am attaching a detailed analysis for both article Abstracts.

Good assessment, Sartaj. Furthermore, the first part of the abstract in one matches the first paragraph of the introduction in the other. This is quite a serious case.

Dear Dr Sartaj Alam,

Thank you so much for your analysis. Yes we have done a analysis with full paper using plagiarism checker. more than 2500 words are matching.

Now that you have reported it, get back to doing science!

Dear Brijesh, the topic which you brought into discussion is very timely and useful for honest researchers.. The amount of hard work done for doing a research, and getting it published is enormous and will be felt by only those done by it.. and corollary to what you have mentioned here is, the phone calls from certain journals contacting a person, asking for articles for publication in their journal, of course, with a publication fee.. Is this the route cause for plagiarism, though not the only cause.. with statutory bodies making it compulsory to have publications for promotion, people tend to get publications by hook or crook.. Editorial bodies of a journal cannot be solely blamed for these work, as they tend to consider technical aspects, and send it for peer review.. and again, since the identity is hidden, even the person reviewing the manuscript, tend to overlook it.. Basically, its the honesty which is most important here.. however, Once such things get published, and if it is found that, it is not the printing error or other technical error, such matters need to be dealt seriously, with the interest of the large. I believe,there has to a body which co ordinates entire journal community worldwide, though it appear theoretical..

Ultimately i believe theft is theft, whatever is the field or matter..

This is a very difficult issue!

Difficult, sure; but it is not impossible to eradicate the practice. Why we cannot establish an accrediting/authenticating institution similar to any accreditation board where every journal will send articles for certification for substance originality and Plagiarism. What are your ideas to put a permanent stop to this practice?

I had an experience when someone also copied my paper and published it.

You can read all this story in my letter to the Editor:

Mynbaev OA. Re:The addition of O2 to the CO2 does not prevent the systemic effects of the CO2 pneumoperitoneum in a rabbit model. Surg Lap Endosc Percut Tech. 2005;15(5):271-274. // Surg Laparosc Endosc Percutan Tech. 2006 Apr;16(2):123-5; author reply 125-6.

There are many other adopted copies of my papers in Russian journals.

Even my PhD and ScD Thesises were also adopted and copied.

With reference to Ospan Mynbaev's experience.. yes copying theses is more or less rampant.. with the increase in number institutions, and corresponding increase in postgraduate seats, its a quite common practice copying theses, and of course these are not dealt seriously.. yes, I believe the charity begins at home.. if a candidate is seen to made his theses sincerely and honestly, the same message will be carried in his/her life..(again probably i m more theoretical here).. but once a candidate gets the taste of copying, he/she is likely to adapt the same in future..

What is even harder to detect is "plagiarism " of one's own work. In the extreme case, abstracts of exact same words have been submitted, but less obvious cases are common.

According to COPE gudielines (http://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines) it should be retracted.

When we discuss of plagiarism, Ospan Mynbaev’s experience is our first idea or first reflex, but there are more possibilities for the plagiarists.

Unfortunately, to date, plagiarism of theses remains possible. In the future, if all the theses were published on the web by the universities, i think, I hope that plagiarism will disappear... Reviewers, jury members having the possibility to check the honesty of the candidate…

For studies, the Editor of the Review must systematically verify the absence of plagiarism, with the current software and shall obtain from each of the authors, their actual and real participation. (Furthermore, I believe that the number of authors should be limited to six, other collaborators being listed as “…… working group”, for instance.) Relatively easy to tract in clinical research manuscripts, plagiarism remains possible for reviews or “state of the art”.

In case of plagiarism, authors should appear on a “black list” available for all the Editors, their Institution and University being informed. Misconduct alert and retraction or corrections being published by the EDITOR and the Institutions in the next issue and available on PUBMED for instance.., after investigations and confirmation.

And what about duplicate or triplicate publications, using the same cohort, by the same team, whereas, usually, Editors does not accept such practice?

On another hand, I would focus on the “pseudo plagiarism” of researchers which copy their previously published “materials methods” for their potential new publication concerning a study performed with the same protocol. With some software, they may be accused of plagiarism by the Editor of their previous publication…..Thus, some instead of describing completely their methods which will be of interest for the reader, proposed “with our method previously described “ and add the reference..

Plagiarism should be stopped, authors blacklisted, but I think that “one plagiarism” should be treated differently.

Plagiarism is a serious research misconduct but there are many types of it, the magnitude of the misconduct may vary from being subtle to severe. Out of the various types of plagiarism, copy pasting, i.e, taking verbatim from other articles without proper citation or absence of quotes  does come under the serious types of plagiarism. Though most authors do it unintentionally, it may have dire repercussions. The journal editors, reviewers should screen for plagiarism before publication.  It is also the duty of authors to check for plagiarism before submitting an article. The universities may have a publication committee which should insist on checking every article for plagiarism check before submission. There are various softwares available which can be purchased by the universities and can motivate ethical writing. The other important point to be considered and the need of the hour is the young researchers have to be educated in this aspect through lectures or workshops. The following article highlights the ways to avoid plagiarism

ori.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ plagiarism.pdf