Redundant publication: Case study 2

Case study 2. A manuscript was submitted to your journal. During review, one of the referees noticed that the mean arterial blood pressure, total body weight, and glomerular filtration rate on sham-operated male and female rats appeared identical to data included in an article published in another journal by the same authors a year earlier. The similarity extended to the same number of animals used and the same error on each of the aforementioned data. When queried, the author became irritated and asked, Why shouldnt these data be identical? These are the same animal groups. He went on to argue that the points of the two articles were different. What should be done?

Questions for discussion:

1. Should these control data be deleted from the submitted manuscript?

2. Would it be permissible to republish data if new experiments were added (under the identical conditions) in the second manuscript?

3. Would it be permissible to republish data in a second paper submitted to a journal with an entirely different readership than the first?

1. What are the scientific benefits of republishing data? What are the shortcomings?