scitech library question

:: The XXIV Annual Charleston Conference was held last week in Charleston SC. Phil Davis, Life Sciences Bibliographer at Cornell University, presented a talk called The Ethics of Republishing: Should journal articles ever be republished? In the presentation, Davis revealed that he discovered 409 articles had been republished in 67 Emerald journals between 1989 and 2003, with 5 occurences of triplicate publication. Variations of this practice included simultaneous publication, delayed republication, same journal - different year, article reformat, copy editing, title modification, republishing "original research", and more.

Davis's article to follow, "The Ethics of Republishing. A case study of Emerald/MCB University Press Journals", will appear in Library Resources & Technical Services 49 no.2, forthcoming April 2005. Here is the abstract:

It is unethical to republish a journal article without citing the original source. Simple keyword searching of Emerald (formerly known as MCB University Press) online journals from the publisher’s web site has identified 409 examples of articles from sixty-seven 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 reported knowledge of this practice. This article 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”.

From Davis's web site, the following are available for his paper: the draft manuscript, list of Emerald/MCB UP duplication examples in alphabetical order (updated to 7 Oct 2025), examples of MCB University Press republished articles in journal order (updated to 7 Oct 2025), and the aformentioned powerpoint presentation.

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