Q: Is it self-plagiarism if I publish a journal article based on a book that I've co-authored?

Detailed Question -

I have contributed 10 pages to a book by several co-authors that was published recently. This book was about raising awareness about a problem and did not include original results; hence it was published without peer review. With this content only, it cannot be an academic paper. Hence, I am trying to write a journal article in a more structured based on this content. If it is self-plagiarism or duplicate publication, I would not like to start.  If it is acceptable, how can it be used?

 

1 Answer to this question
Answer:

Journals accept only original work, that is, work that has not been published elsewhere. If you submit an article using only the content of your published book, it will be considered self-plagiarism. However, it is acceptable to write an article that is loosely based on the contents of the book, but has a completely different focus. You can refer to the published book (or book chapter) in your literature review and cite it wherever you are using ideas from it.

However, remember that the manuscript of the journal article has to be completely different from that of the book: it should have an approach or angle that is novel, original, and has not been explored in the book. A person who has read the book should not think that the article is just a summarized or paraphrased version of the book: it should have enough original content to merit publication.

Additionally, to be on the safe side, whenever you use content from the book, make sure you reword it completely in addition to citing the source. This will ensure that the plagiarism detection software does not flag it as similar content. Also, run a plagiarism check online before submitting the paper to the journal to enure that it does not have more than 20 per cent similarity.

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