The Perils of Copy and Paste: Plagiarism in Scientific Publishing

Newswise — JRRD associate editor Tristan Horrom writes in a guest editorial that despite the efforts of the publishing community, research misconduct is on the rise. In the past 30 years, retractions in scientific journals have increased ten-fold. According to Horrom's research, this increase in misconduct is due largely to an unprecedented growth in the number of researchers and scientific publishers worldwide. JRRD has seen a drastic increase in article submissions, leading to both more articles per issue and a higher rejection rate. The growth of the Internet has also led to an increase in the number of publication venues. With this increase in scholarship and publication outlets comes a pressure to publish, which can sometimes lead to misconduct.

According to Mr. Horrom, while plagiarism in scientific and technical writing may be a growing problem in some publications, JRRD is using several tools and an increasing focus within the publishing industry to fight this growing trend.

You can read Mr. Horrom's complete editorial here. http://www.rehab.research.va.gov/jour/2012/498/horrom498.html