On plagiarism

Physics in Medicine & Biology
Editorial

Simon Harris et al 2008 Phys. Med. Biol. 53
doi: 10.1088/0031-9155/53/5/E01

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It is possible to plagiarize not only the work of others, but also one's own work through re-use of identical or nearly identical portions of manuscripts without acknowledgement and without citation. Simultaneous or subsequent submission of similar manuscripts with only minor differences and without citation between the manuscripts is, unfortunately, a not uncommon practice by authors hoping to acquire multiple publications from a research project. PMB strongly discourages this practice and will act against it if the facts become known before publication. In extreme cases of self-plagiarism (duplicate publication of a (nearly) full paper which has already been published elsewhere in a peer-review journal) sanctions similar to those outlined above may be applied. Occasionally similar articles may legitimately be published in two journals, because the journals reach different audiences and both would be interested in the article. This practice must be approved by the editors of both journals, and the duplication must be acknowledged in each article >>>