This is the statement by the Editorial Board of the Czech and Slovak Social Work Journal (henceforth “EB”).
One of our journal authors is accused of auto-plagiarism by an anonymous accuser since September 2021 (henceforth “the Case”). Giving GDPR regulations EB does not presents titles and names so that we can prevent negative publicity
of people and organizations involved. Nevertheless, EB presents its basic assumptions concerning self-plagiarism
and its statement concerning the Case so that clear EB message about EB view of the Case is available.
Assumptions
We distinguish “self-plagiarism” and “improper re-use of text”. We refer to more than 10% of not referred overlapping texts as well as not referred substantial overlapping of research question, results, discussion and conclusions between two articles by the term “self-plagiarism”. We refer to less than 10 % of not referred overlapping texts without any substantial not referred overlapping of research question, results, discussion and conclusions between two articles by the term of “improper re-use of text”.
Results of the Editorial Board Case analysis
EB find that both articles which author is accused of self-plagiarism have similarities in background information, methodology and using the same data. Similar quotations of respondents in both articles were not referred
to each other. There is no overlap in research questions of the both articles. There are few non-substantial overlapping wordings in the results, discussion and conclusions. It is not explained explicitly that the two articles are different sub-studies from one research. There is less than 10 % of not referred overlapping texts in the both articles.
Editorial Board conclusion
Parallels in the both articles do not prove a case of auto-plagiarism but an improper re-use of wordings. It is not
a case of proved fraud, i.e. on purpose silencing another publication and on-purpose re-using of texts without references.
Prof. Libor Musil,
Editor in Chief, on behalf of Editorial Board
