Publish or Perish

Abstract

To the Editor.— In a recent issue of Pediatrics,1 the editors of several pediatric journals express disgruntlement with the practices of submitting articles reporting the same data to more than one journal, or "self-plagiarism," and of dividing studies into numerous short reports or "least publishable units." To combat these practices, they infarmally" inform one another about suspected duplication. All well and good, I suppose, and occasionally authors probably have had their hands slapped. But, the crux of the matter, really, is contained in paragraph 1, sentence 5: "We suspect that these practices are based on the desire to expand one's list of publications so as to enhance one's reputation and the chances of achieving promotion and academic tenure."