Introducing
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
Breaking up or segmenting data from a single study and creating different manuscripts for
publication.
Question 1
A group of authors presented preliminary results of a pilot study in the form of a short communication in one journal. Two years later, the same group of authors published an article based on a much bigger sample in the same journal. They referred to the short communication published earlier and readily presented their results which supported the hypothesis based on the pilot study.
Should this be considered a salami publication?
This is certainly not a salami publication. Moreover, this is probably the best way to conduct a study. A pilot study can reveal disadvantages of a study design that can be corrected during research conduct and data collection. Cross referencing the previous publication demonstrated the authors’ transparency in their intention to present the study results.
Several groups of researchers took part in registered clinical trial on acute pancreatitis patients. The trial was designed as a longitudinal multidisciplinary study that observed diagnostic and clinical outcomes. Two groups of authors involved in this trial published two articles. One article described the prognostic value of interleukin on late complication development in patients with acute pancreatitis in comparison to healthy controls. The other article presented the beneficial effect of enteral nutrition in patients with acute pancreatitis. The studied population was the same but the hypotheses of both articles were completely different and with different outcomes. Should those articles be published?
Those articles can be published but under the condition that the initial research questions were different and so are the presented results. Results of one study should not overlap in any segment with another study. For example, biochemical markers presented in one article should not be presented again in the other. In addition, each article must have a unique contribution to the knowledge even though the data are collected on the same set of patients. Both manuscripts should clearly state that they present only part of the results collected from the large clinical trial and two articles must be properly cross referenced.
A group of authors published the results of a new biomarker used in the evaluation of inflammatory bowel disease therapy. Institute’s ethical committee approved the study and all patients gave informed consent to participate in the study. The sample size was small so the authors correctly chose nonparametric statistical tests. The study revealed some interesting results worthy of further follow up.
Several years later the same group of authors reported results on the same hypothesis but with a different outcome and with no cross reference to the earlier publication. The studied patient population was much bigger so they used appropriate parametric statistics and in the end gained a different study outcome. Are there any grounds for suspecting salami publication?
There are legitimate reasons for suspecting salami publication i.e., the same group of authors published two articles with the same hypothesis. The fact that the authors did not properly reference their previous work sets doubts on their good intention.
There is no limitation for publishing a follow up study with a different outcome but basic conditions have to be met: clear statement of the type of the study, explanation of the differences between previous publication and the new one, and appropriate citation of the previous article.
During research, an author presented a part of the collected data in the form of a poster presentation at a congress meeting. At the end of the year, the same author, together with his colleagues, published an article with almost the same title as the poster presentation.
The hypothesis was almost the same but there were several additional parameters presented in the published article. Is this considered to be sa- lami publication?
It is a common agreement that previous publication of a congress abstract is not considered to be duplicate publication (9). However, presenting the same poster presentation at two or more congress meetings without a clear statement of its earlier presentation is not allowed.
A prospective study comprised of determination of C-reactive protein (CRP), pro calcitonin (PCT) and serum amyloid A (SAA) in renal cancer patients. There were two groups, patients with metastatic renal cancer and patients with localized renal cancer. Within a short period of time, two articles with similar titles were published with no cross reference to each other. One article presented the use of CRP and PCT for differentiation of renal cancer stages. The other article assessed the difference of CRP and SAA between patients with metastatic and localized renal cancer. The size of the patient.
This is a typical case of salami publication. Exactly the same data for localized renal cancer subgroup of patients are presented in both manuscripts without appropriate reference to previously published article. In addition, there is no justified reason for splitting the data for tested biochemical markers into two separate manuscripts.
However, no accusations can be made before a thorough inspection of articles involved in this case. The corresponding authors of both articles must be contacted and given the chance to make an appropriate explanation.