Ask Athena is Science Editor’s advice column for your most challenging publishing and editing questions. Submit your questions to scienceeditor@councilscienceeditors.org Dear Athena, Our journal received a letter to the editor regarding a recently published paper. The editor in chief felt the letter contained some valid points and invited the authors of the original publication to submit a reply. In the course of preparing their reply, the authors discovered that this same letter had already been published in another journal. What should the editor do now? —Seeing Double Dear Seeing Double, How lucky for you that the authors found this other letter before the duplicate was published in your journal, because that is precisely what this is, duplicate publication. If the duplicate had already been published, that would be a clear violation of publication ethics, and I would advise you to contact the editor in chief of the other journal, as well as the authors’ institution. Because you had not yet published the letter, you may be able to handle this differently. First, work with your editor in chief to draft a letter to the authors explaining what you discovered. Avoid accusations, and simply state the facts that the letter the authors submitted to your journal appears to have been previously published in another journal. Explain that it is against your journal policies and ask the authors to explain to you what happened. Give them a short deadline by which to respond, about a week. Your next step will depend […]