Hi colleagues,

I have a tricky issue here. Is it acceptable to use same information, e.g. paragraphs or 1 page for 2 papers with different titles and themes? I am publishing from my thesis and I have found myself in a situ where I have to use the same case study (one used in my PhD) for two completely different papers. The case study can be linked to several themes. Any advise here?

Cheers, Kellykel

I don't know if I've seen people using the same paragraphs word for word, but I've definitely seen multiple papers on the same small study or data set that draw out different aspects. My instinct is that it's probably best to re-word, not least because the different focus of the paper would change the emphasis even in sections like previous literature or background, but that it's fine to use the same data and same basic literature etc. But maybe it's different in different disciplines? (I'm social science/psychology cross-disciplinary stuff.)

I went to a focus group type event at a conference recently with BIG names from my field - from around the world and two of them had edited all the top level journals in my field at some point.

THey all agreed that you can definitely copy from your thesis to publications. BUT you cannot copy word for word across different publications. YOu can use similar intro/lit review/methods, but you must re-word things.

Thanks guys for the clarification and I will rephrase the working on the other paper.

Cheers

Hi Kellykel,

as has been said, I think that one should rephrase, use a similar content, yet not literally the same.

By the way, you will find that many articles in different journals are based on one and the same data base / project.

Good luck!:-)