einstein (São Paulo). 07/Nov/2023;21:eED0837.
Ethics in publication: salami slicing
DOI: 10.31744/einstein_journal/2023ED0837
Salami papers are defined as those created by slicing research in as many parts as possible, looking for the minimal publishable unit. ( ) This type of conduct aims to publish more papers using the same research. Another trick of getting more publications and citations is by implementing a clearly unethical practice of duplicate submissions. ( ) Both are culpable of falsely inflating the citation index of authors, data dredging, cherry picking of data and worse, leading to systematic errors in meta-analysis. ( ) Journal reviewers and readers often cannot evaluate the “salami paper” data in the whole context of the research. It´s admissible to make more than one publication using the same database when clearly justified for addressing different questions and minimal overlap of focus. ( ) In these cases this must be explicitly presented in the manuscript.
Salami papers are easily recognized if the reader sees at least two slices: the same population and similar parameters evaluated, separated in different papers. Salami slicers are aware of this risk (most editors, including those of this journal do not publish salami papers if perceived as one). One approach to avoid detection is to try and publish in different journals – some try this. Some game the system in even more clever ways by sending their papers to different journals at the same time, as unpublished papers can`t be known to the editors or reviewers. Other more bold authors send the sliced manuscripts to the same journal and hope for the best. In addition, salami papers commonly contain significant auto plagiarism.
[…]
132