The Ethics of Republishing

Abstract

Publishing a journal article without citing the original source is considered unethical in the scholarly community. Simple keyword searching of Emerald (formerly MCB University Press) online journals from the publisher’s Web site has identified 409 examples of articles from 67 journals that were republished without such notification from 1989 through 2003. Many of these articles were published simultaneously in journals within the same or similar subject disciplines. Five examples of triple publication were identified. In several cases, neither the editor nor editorial board members had knowledge of this practice. This paper will review the conditions of acceptable republishing plus document and provide examples of republication. It will discuss implications on the publication of record, and question whether this is a case of “let the buyer beware.”