2. If a paper is published in Japanese, can the same
paper be published in an English journal?
Is Publishing the same journal paper in different
languages duplicate publication. What’s the view
globally?
“
“
Question received from a Editage client
3. Introduction
Duplicate publication is a grey area that not all authors or even journal editors are
very clear about.
While in most cases, duplicate publication is considered a form of academic fraud, the
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) uses the term “secondary
publication” to describe acceptable republication of manuscripts that have already
been published.
These include rare cases in which an article needs to reach the widest possible audience,
through republication either in another journal or in another language.
4. Conditions to be met for duplicate publication
Time
Interval
Target
Audience
Due
Acknowle-
dgment
Necessary
approvals
5. 1. Necessary approvals
The authors must receive formal approval from the editors of
both journals.
The journal editor responsible for the secondary publication
must have a copy of the primary published version.
6. 2. Time Interval
There should be an interval of at least one week between
publications.
7. 3. Target Audience
The secondary publication should be clearly intended for a
different group of readers.
It should also faithfully reflect the data and interpretations
discussed in the primary version.
8. 4. Due Acknowledgment
In the secondary publication, the title should indicate that the
paper has been published before.
The footnote on the title page should provide a reference for the
primary publication.
9. Reproducing a paper that was previously published in
another language would be considered duplication, unless all
the above conditions are met.
The most important thing is that the editors of both journals
are informed of the circumstances and agree to the
republication.
Concluding remarks