Abstract
This study analyzes the possible occurrence of plagiarism and self-plagiarism in a sample of articles published in the Scientific Periodicals Electronic Library (SPELL), an open database that indexes business journals in Brazil. The author compared one sample obtained in 2013 (n = 47 articles) and another selected from 2018 (n = 118 articles). In both samples, we verified the guidelines that each of the journals provided to authors regarding plagiarism and the adoption of software to detect textual similarities. In the analysis conducted in 2013, it was found that only one journal (2%) mentioned the word “plagiarism” in its policies, although the majority of the directives required guarantees that no type of violation of authors’ rights was contained in the manuscript. In the analysis conducted in 2013, it was determined that there were literal reproductions in 31 published articles (65.9%), and no relevant similarities with other publications were encountered in 16 articles (34.1%). In the 2018 analysis, 69 of the publications (58%) included observations and guidelines related to plagiarism and self-plagiarism. In the analysis conducted in 2018, it was found that similarities (plagiarism and self-plagiarism) occurred in 52 articles (44%), and no relevant evidence of plagiarism or self-plagiarism was found in 66 (56%) manuscripts. Although a reduction in the index of the occurrence of plagiarism was observed, as was an increase in the instructions on the prevention of plagiarism by authors, practices directed at guiding authors by means of directives concerning the importance of preventing plagiarism in manuscripts submitted for publication can be recommended.
Highlights
In percentages, of works retracted is low, it must be remembered that there is no standard minimum acceptable index for such practices in the academic world. It is still unclear whether the numbers of retractions that have been verified are related to an increase in the frequency of plagiarism-related practices in recent years or result from increasing the identification of such instances because of the rigor in editing and whistle-blowing processes, internet visibility and the use of technological resources such as software that detects textual similarities. Considering this scenario, the main objective of this study was to analyze the possible occurrence of plagiarism and self-plagiarism in a nonrandom sample of articles published in learned journals in the field of administration indexed in the Scientific Periodicals Electronic Library (SPELL) information database, a repository of scholarly studies that offers free access to technical and scientific information in the area of business
This guidance is part of the flowchart concerning what to do in cases of the suspicion of plagiarism and redundancy in scholarly manuscripts that can be found in the document elaborated by the Committee On Publication Ethics (COPE) and that is aimed at editors of scholarly journals
We observed that one of the publications studied cited a directive related to redundancy in its submission guidelines, it utilized a different term to refer to the subject: overlapping of publication (Ebape 2014)
Summary
It has been reported in the literature that studies marred by a lack of scientific integrity due to scientific misconduct such as plagiarism or redundant publication (self-plagiarism) and works containing gift or ghost authorship are a recurring problem, which has intensified as of late (Amos 2014; Associação Nacional de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação ePesquisa em Administração (ANPAD) 2017; Committee On Publication Ethics (COPE)Krokoscz International Journal for Educational Integrity2011; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) 2011; Council of Science Editors (CSE) 2018; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) 2011; Koocher and Keith-Spiegel 2010; Van Nordeen 2011).In January, 2011, the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Graduates - CAPES) recommended that all Brazilian institutions of higher education create “policies of awareness and information concerning intellectual property, adopting specific procedures seeking to limit the practice of plagiarism in the preparation of theses, monographs, articles and other texts on the part of students and other members of their communities” (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior 2011). The main of research support agencies in Brazil presented policies aimed at restraining the occurrence of fraud and misconduct in scientific publications, citing the fabrication or invention of data, the falsification of results, and authorship fraud (plagiarism) among the types of fraud and misconduct (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico Tecnológico 2011; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo 2011) These measures were aligned with those which institutions of higher education around the world were practicing and were in conformity with the codes of research integrity of international organizations, such as the following: the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (2005), the Australian government (2007), and the Research Councils UK (2017). In 2017, ABEC, in partnership with CSE, published the “Diretrizes do CSE para Promover Integridade em Publicações em Periódicos Científicos” (Policies of the CSE for Promoting Integrity in Scientific Journals) in Portuguese
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