Data-Based Articles and Duplicate Publication

Abstract

To achieve promotion and tenure, university faculty are expected to implement a program of research and have a series of data-based articles published in peerreviewed journals. They must demonstrate contributions to disciplinary knowledge regarding research phenomena. It is not surprising then that a question arose at a recent meeting of new faculty and doctoral students regarding this matter. How many data-based articles can be extracted from one qualitative or quantitative research study, without the author’s being guilty of duplicate publication? This is an important question to which there is no simple answer. The term databased generally refers to information that is expressed in digital format or descriptive language that surfaces with statistical analyses or participants’ descriptions and creative conceptualizations from quantitative and qualitative research studies. What data-based actually means in a particular university may vary; however, the definition of duplicate publication does not vary. The central guideline in regard to duplicate publication with data-based articles is that the same content must not be published under the guise of new material; all material under review by a journal or previously published must be referenced as such. For the scholar’s own benefit and to mark how the scholar wants to be known, a report of the entire research study should be published first in a peer-reviewed research journal. The report should give the reader a full picture of the research study, including the following: a brief introduction (describing the phenomenon under study), the research question, the theoretical frame of reference, a brief section on related literature, the methodology (data gathering and data analysis processes), the findings, and conclusions with recommendations for theory development, future research, and practice.