Scholarly Publishing Toolkit

Responsible Authorship

All UT students and faculty should be familiar with responsible and ethical publishing practices. This includes knowing answers to:

• Who should be listed as an author? Who should not be listed?
• What constitutes self-plagiarism?
• What is salami-slicing data, and what is the harm?
• What is redundant publication, and what is the harm?
• Can you submit an article to more than one journal?
• What is a journal's right of first publication?
• Is plagiarism the same as copyright infringement?

Guide to Ethical Writing

The Office of Research Integrity (part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) maintains a learning module and publication by Miguel Roig, Avoiding Plagiarism, Self-Plagiarism, and Other Questionable Writing Practices: A Guide to Ethical Writing. Roig presents 28 guidelines for ethical writing, including:

• Guideline 10: Authors who submit a manuscript for publication containing previously disseminated data, reviews, conclusions, etc., must clearly indicate to the editors and readers the nature of the previous dissemination. The provenance of data must never be in doubt.
• Guideline 12: In the domain of conferences and similar audio-visual presentations of their work, authors should practice the same principles of transparency with their audiences. 

Please review Roig's guide and ask others to do the same.

Authorship Resources

For guidelines and recommendations:

• COPE: The Committee on Publication Ethics provides guidelines on responsible authorship and peer-review and case studies of research publishing questions.
• ICMJE: The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors provides resources and recommendations for research conduct, reporting, and editing.
• ProQuest and the Council of Graduate Schools commissioned the following documents from Kenneth Crews, Director of Columbia's Copyright Advisory Office: Copyright and Your Dissertation or Thesis: Ownership, Fair Use, and Your Rights and Responsibilities as well as Copyright Laws Around the World

For questions on authorship, author roles, etc.:

• Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CREDIT), integrated with many journals
• International Standards for Editors and Authors (from COPE)
• What Constitutes Authorship? (from COPE)

Resources at UT

• iThenticate: UT's Office of Research and Engagement provides access to iThenticate, a premier plagiarism detection tool for faculty and student researchers.
• Office of Research Integrity includes resources on conflicts of interest, IRB, IACUC, and other topics.
• Research Policies from UT's Office of Research and Engagement.

Plagiarism Detection Tools

The Libraries recommends iThenticate. Login to iThenticate with your NetID.

Other tools (this is a list of available tools, not an endorsement):

• CopyScape: http://www.copyscape.com/
• PlagScan: http://www.plagscan.com
• Grammarly: https://www.grammarly.com/plagiarism-checker 
• Content Rescue: http://contentrescue.org
• PlagTracker: http://www.plagtracker.com/#
• Unplag: https://unplag.com  
• Check for Plagiarism: http://www.checkforplagiarism.net

Don't use Viper! (See this page about Viper's connection to paper mills.)