Self-plagiarism in Academic Publishing: the Anatomy of a Misnomer

Overview

Journal Sci Eng Ethics

Date 2012 Nov 27

PMID 23179068

Citations 8

Authors

Liviu Andreescu

Affiliations

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Abstract

The paper discusses self-plagiarism and associated practices in scholarly publishing. It approaches at some length the conceptual issues raised by the notion of self-plagiarism. It distinguishes among and then examines the main families of arguments against self-plagiarism, as well as the question of possibly legitimate reasons to engage in this practice. It concludes that some of the animus frequently reserved for self-plagiarism may be the result of, among others, poor choice of a label, unwarranted generalizations as to its ill effects based on the specific experience (and goals) of particular disciplines, and widespread but not necessarily beneficial publishing practices.

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