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Honesty, Honesty, Wherefore Art Thou, Honesty?

College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10032

In regard to your editorial entitled "Salami Slicing, Shotgunning, and the Ethics of Authorship" [1], I ask, "Honesty, Honesty, Wherefore art thou, Honesty?" If using previously published articles as templates is plagiarism, authors who have difficulty writing English are bound by a painful dilemma: to plagiarize or not to plagiarize? Whether 'tis nobler to present valuable research data as undecipherable gobbledygook or, taking arms against a sea of grammar, to template? ("Templating" is, itself, a bastardized verb that plagiarizes the noun "template.")

Is templating bad? The great bard, William Shakespeare, used previously published stories as templates for his plays even as he himself would later fall prey to vile templators. The Lion King used Hamlet as a template, and West Side Story used Romeo and Juliet. Yet this boastful literary tool, so painfully wrested from the gods of literature, is called plagiarism by mortal editors.

Oh fie! But wait. All's not lost that starts out lost. 'Tis a dark secret that lies buried in the heart of templating. To use one previously published source as a template is plagiarism, verily, but to use 10 or 20 by different authors is literary "research." Would any editor dare call it plagiarism? If yes, then—if such plagiarism be the food of intelligibility—plagiarize on! Forsooth.

Reference

1. Rogers LF. Salami slicing, shotgunning, and the ethics of authorship (editorial). AJR 1999; 173:265[Abstract/Free Full Text]

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This Article Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Staron, R. B. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Staron, R. B. Social Bookmarking                      What's this? Hotlight (NEW!) What's Hotlight?