One of the referees of journal has brought to our attention a potential case of plagiarism. The referee feels that the a manuscript submitted to journal, representing a retrospective study of a cohort of patients with a particular condition, plagiarises an article published in another journal. The authors are from an institute in a middle-eastern country.
The submitted paper contains numerous full paragraphs identical to those in the previous paper. Editorial also suspects that fraud may be involved. For example, the submitted paper reports data on 28 patients (72% male and 28% female); clinical sign 1 was present in 68%; sign 2 in 26%; sign 3 in 9% and one was asymptomatic. A particular investigation was diagnostic in 45%. In the first paper, 47 infants were studied. He percentages of the parameters detailed above were identical!
COPE advice
This is blatant plagiarism but also that fraud was likely in view of the identical percentages in the various subgroups of cases reported. It begs the question as to whether the research was actually performed.
It should to ask all of the authors for an explanation of why the text was identical to that of the other paper and why the percentages were identical. No allegation should be made and a deadline for an answer should be set. If no or no satisfactory answer is forthcoming, COPE recommends reporting the matter to the Vice Chancellor for Research at the authors’ university asking him to investigate. It was also suggested to COPE that the matter should be taken up with the Ministry of Health. If the university does not respond appropriately, they should be politely reminded at 3 month intervals, asking for the result of their investigation.
If the editor decides to publish an editorial on plagiarism/fraud etc, he should not identify the paper or authors concerned until the proper authorities have reached a conclusion.
