Introduction
As a general rule, JMIR Publications adheres to COPE guidance on redundant (duplicate) publication in a submitted manuscript. Authors are required to include in a cover letter during submission: an explanation if the submission has been previously published or being considered by another journal. This includes previous publication as an abstract, conference proceedings article, etc. Specific circumstances are described here:
The manuscript is under review in an other journal
This is not acceptable and is unethical authorship behavior, according to COPE guidance. A manuscript could be rejected at any stage of submission if this is stated or discovered during editorial processing.
A duplicated submission to a second JMIR Publications journal will be automatically removed from further review. This includes instances where the authors' manuscript is in the TransferHub and awaiting the authors’ response about a transfer suggestion offered.
The manuscript was published as an abstract
Generally, an abstract is a short submission (approx 450 or 500 words, possibly in a conference or event setting. Because a manuscript is typically a more extensive reporting of the scientific work conducted (2000-10000 words), this can be a potentially acceptable circumstance, even if the abstract may have been published in an indexed proceedings in its short form. However, authors should disclose the event and final published form of the abstract (e.g., provide the URL) in their cover letter for editorial review. Some exceptions may occur, depending on the specific situation.
Note that JMIR Publications publishes abstracts in iProceedings and it is encouraged for authors to submit their full manuscript for peer review and potential publication in a JMIR Publications journal (frequently, a discount on the full manuscript, if accepted after peer review, may apply if the manuscript is based on an abstract already published in iProceedings).
- I am chairing/organizing/am involved in a conference/workshop. How can I work with JMIR Publications
- We are organizing a conference - can we publish our proceedings / abstracts in iproceedings?
The manuscript was published in a conference proceedings
Authors should clearly disclose the following details in their cover letter for consideration. This is in addition to any other standard information required in a cover letter:
- How does the submitted manuscript differ from the original conference proceedings publication? Is it identical? Were additional data or analyses included? Or other relevant changes.
- What is name and date of the conference? Or supply a relevant event URL.
- What is the URL of the manuscript and/or URL of the conference proceedings?
- Does the conference proceedings, or the published manuscript, have a DOI? If yes, please provide the DOI.
- Is the paper published in a Pubmed-indexed journal/proceedings (it has a PMID)? Is yes, please provide the PMID.
Based on information supplied, JMIR Publications staff will determine whether the manuscript can proceed to peer review in JMIR Publications journal, and adhere to COPE guidance on redundant (duplicate) publication in a submitted manuscript when making a determination on whether the manuscript may or may not proceed to peer review in a JMIR Publications journal.