Beuy Joob1, Viroj Wiwanitkit2. 1. Sanitation 1 Medical Academic Center, Bangkok, Thailand. 2. Department of Tropical Medicine, Hainan Medical University, Haikou, China.
Sir,The publication by Menon and Muraleedharan on “salami slicing of data sets” is very interesting.[1] The publication of salami reports is an actual ethical problem in academic publication. However, the attempt to slicing parts of a single research or recycling of the data is not uncommon and this is considered as an attempt to perform a self-plagiarism of the “concept” in the study. Sometimes, a more complex situation such as an attempt to perform a translational self-plagiarism in different language can also be seen. The attempt to “publish a serial of reports as parts 1, 2, 3, and so on” is another important concern since it can be a risk for salami publication. Here, I would like to quote a statement from a famous artist in my country. An artist will create the art that is a single piece in the world – “An artist will create the art that is a single piece in the world”To prevent the problem is important. As Menon and Muraleedharan noted, “young researchers, when in doubt, would also be well advised to consult a senior professor or any other appropriate authority who can guide them correctly in such situations”[1] This might be a bias that the young researcher has more risk to perform salami publication. It is advised that the senior academic advisor can take a role in the prevention of unwanted plagiarism in student's or junior staff's work.[2] Nevertheless, this does not mean that the senior academic staff will have no problem of unethical publication. It should be noted that the plagiarism can still be observed in the work of many famous historical world medical scientists. The recent case discussion on the world-famous anatomist, “Henry Gray” is a good example.[3] In our settings, it is apparently seen that the salami publication and self-plagiarism are usually generated from the senior academic person or senior professor. It might be sometimes difficult to find a good role model in each setting. The consultation to standard publication ethics should be the best suggestion.