Editorial
arbitraje, también los editores deben poder que confían en la calidad científica de Ecología
confiar en que los autores respetan las Austral y de Interciencia mantendrán la exce-
condiciones impuestas por las publicaciones, lente conducta que han venido mostrando, y
que son básicas para que a su vez los lectores apelamos a continuar el comportamiento ético
confíen en la responsabilidad y rigor de las tan crítico para la actividad de investigación
revistas científicas. científica.
Editorial
ORIGINALIDADE E DUPLICAÇÃO EM os mesmos com pequenas diferenças na
PUBLICAÇÕES CIENTÍFICAS ordem dos nomes.
Editorial
plicate publications” . Our conclusion in this usual to find phenomena such as the subdi-
particular case is that if the authors of one of vision of research work in multiple papers,
the two articles would have seen the other reduced to what Malmer has called “ the
one in another journal under different author- smallest publishable units” . It is also rela-
ship, no doubt they would have considered tively frequent, and practically impossible to
it a case of plagiarism. In this instance, of prove, the inclusion as authors of researchers
course, the authors are the same, with small who have not participated in the actual re-
differences in the authorship order. search process nor in the writing (at times not
even in its reading) as part of an exchange of
Although the two articles are not identical, “ mutual favors” .
as Editors of the two journals we consider that
the degree of similarity is so high that the es- In all these cases, not even taking into ac-
tablished requirement of being original pa- count the economic aspects, there are serious
pers is not fulfilled. In this case, it cannot even consequences of this type of problems. On the
be considered that one of the papers is an one hand, it is no doubt a wasted space that
overview, as to consider acceptable that one could have been fruitfully used by other pa-
might be “ included” in the other. Scientific pers that fulfill the requirements of original-
publishing implies an enormous non-remu- ity and that reflect the true participation of
nerated effort by a variety of specialists, and the authors. But, additionally, duplication in-
by editors and their assistants, not to men- fringes ethical principles that constitute the
tion the cost involved and the limited space essence of academic activity and of scientific
availability of the journals. The respect due research. On the other hand, it seriously dam-
to our readers is also of utmost importance. ages the confidence base that should exist
They will be frustrated by finding the degree among editors, authors and readers. Inas-
of similarity between these two articles, par- much as authors trust the honesty of editors
ticularly at present times, when international and the impartiality and technical seriousness
indexing systems permit to find papers such of the peer review process, the editors should
as these two “ copies” in an almost immedi- also be able to trust that authors honor the
ate manner. Any reader who gets these two conditions imposed by the publications.
references as the result of a bibliographic da- These are fundamental for the confidence
tabase search would be surprised by the de- that, in turn, readers will have in the respon-
gree of similarity and become disappointed sibility and rigor of scientific journals.
with the seriousness of both journals, thus af-
fecting their prestige. Therefore, and to be re- While it is true that modern electronic meth-
spectful of the previous Editors who with so ods make it easier to detect this type of trans-
much effort and care cultivated the prestige gressions, we expect that authors who trust
of Ecología Austral and of Interciencia, we have the scientific quality of Ecología Austral and
considered it necessary to make public the Interciencia will maintain the excellent behav-
situation and warn about the harm caused. ior that they have shown, and we appeal to
the continuation of the ethical conduct that is
We believe that this problem is an additional so critical to the scientific research activity.
evidence of the undesirable reactions some-
times produced as a response to the pressure Miguel Laufer Jorge Rabinovich
to publish. Certainly, it is not the only way to Editor Editor
respond. With increasing frequency, it is Interciencia Ecología Austral