SEMINAR: Publishing your research: plagiarism, image manipulation and other misconduct

The Speakers: Winthrop Professor Peter Eastwood is the Scientific Director of the Western Australian Pregnancy (Raine) Cohort, inaugural Director of The University of Western Australia’s Centre for Sleep Science and Editor-in-Chief of Respirology. Dr Lieve Bultynck is the Managing Editor of Respirology and Dr Anke van Eekelen is an Administrative Editor in the Editorial Office of Respirology at UWA.

The Seminar: Respirology is the official English-language, peer-reviewed journal of the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology and the major respiratory medicine journal in the Asia-Pacific region. The journal’s Editor-in-Chief is Winthrop Professor Peter Eastwood and the journal’s Editorial Office is located at UWA’s Centre for Sleep Science. In recent years the journal has achieved a rapid rise in impact factor and an increase in the number of submissions, particularly from the Asia-Pacific region but also from Europe and North America. The journal’s aim is to publish the best research papers in the respiratory medicine field, while being mindful of its role as a society journal in supporting and guiding authors from the society’s member countries. With authors worldwide being under pressure to publish or perish, academic journals are faced with rising incidences of ethical misconduct in research and publishing. The unique challenge for Respirology is dealing with these issues in the context of a large number of submissions by researchers from developing and/or non-native English speaking countries. Plagiarism can occur intentionally or unintentionally. For example, an inability to paraphrase and express ideas in an original way or a lack of knowledge about what level of text recycling is acceptable can both result in plagiarism. Respirology works with international experts in publication ethics to deal with issues of misconduct including unwarranted authorship, image manipulation, the absence of attribution or permission to use research tools under copyright and duplicate/salami publishing. This presentation will discuss the strategies used by Respirology in identifying and dealing with plagiarism and misconduct, and the processes used by the journal to educate authors on publication ethics.