Sir,
The publication by Shashok on plagiarism is very interesting.[1] I agree that the main focus of several journals and scientists at present is on verbatim and textual duplication. However, there are many other kinds of plagiarisms including figure and content plagiarism.[2] Decision on “Who should be the plagiarist?” should be carefully done. The aim in practice should be the main thing for decision. It should be noted that there are also several innocent plagiarism (without intention) and accidental plagiarism (such as error caused by the journal) that the ones who practice should not be classified as an actual plagiarist.[3] The more complex situations, such as paraphrasing without referencing and citation might be considered more serious than simple duplication.[4] These situations are difficult to diagnose. In some instances, the plagiarizing author also uses the modification of others’ figures with use of language translation without the citation at the figure and this can also be the very difficult to diagnose plagiarism.
REFERENCES
- 1.Shashok K. Authors, editors, and the signs, symptoms and causes of plagiarism. Saudi J Anaesth. 2011;5:303–7. doi: 10.4103/1658-354X.84107. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Wiwanitkit V. Plagiarism: Word, idea, figure, etc. Croat Med J. 2011;52:657. doi: 10.3325/cmj.2011.52.657. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 3.Nockels K. Librarians can help prevent accidental plagiarism. Nature. 2005;438:422. doi: 10.1038/438422d. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
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