Reuse in STEM research writing
Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>
<jats:p>Text recycling (hereafter TR), sometimes problematically called “self-plagiarism,”
involves the verbatim reuse of text from one’s own existing documents in a newly created
text – such as the duplication of a paragraph or section from a published article
in a new article. Although plagiarism is widely eschewed across academia and the publishing
industry, the ethics of TR are not agreed upon and are currently being vigorously
debated. As part of a federally funded (US) National Science Foundation grant, we
have been studying TR patterns using several methodologies, including interviews with
editors about TR values and practices (<jats:xref>Pemberton, Hall, Moskovitz, &
Anson, 2019</jats:xref>) and digitally mediated text-analytic processes to determine
the extent of TR in academic publications in the biological sciences, engineering,
mathematical and physical sciences, and social, behavioral, and economic sciences
(<jats:xref>Anson, Moskovitz, & Anson, 2019</jats:xref>). In this article, we
first describe and illustrate TR in the context of academic writing. We then explain
and document several themes that emerged from interviews with publishers of peer-reviewed
academic journals. These themes demonstrate the vexed and unsettled nature of TR as
a discursive phenomenon in academic writing and publishing. In doing so, we focus
on the complex relationships between personal (role-based) and social (norm-based)
aspects of scientific publication, complicating conventional models of the writing
process that have inadequately accounted for authorial decisions about accuracy, efficiency,
self-representation, adherence to existing or imagined rules and norms, perceptions
of ownership and copyright, and fears of impropriety.</jats:p>
Type
Journal articlePermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/21611Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1075/aila.00033.ansPublication Info
Pemberton, Michael; Moskovitz, Cary; Hall, Susanne; & Anson, Chris M (2020). Reuse in STEM research writing. AILA Review, 33. pp. 120-135. 10.1075/aila.00033.ans. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/21611.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Cary Moskovitz
Professor of the Practice in the Thompson Writing Program
Cary Moskovitz is Director of Writing in the Disciplines in the Thompson Writing Program.
He also directs the Duke Reader Project and the Text Recycling Research Project.

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