Ingelfinger rule
The Ingelfinger rule is an eponymous rule named after Franz J. Ingelfinger, The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) editor-in-chief who enunciated it in 1969. The rule, as originally articulated in the editorial "Definition of 'Sole Contribution'",[1] stated that NEJM would not publish findings that had been published elsewhere. Though originally meant only for NEJM, the guideline was subsequently adopted by several other scientific journals, and it has shaped scientific publishing ever since.[2] Historically it has also helped to ensure that the journal's content is fresh and does not duplicate content previously reported elsewhere,[3] and it seeks to protect the scientific embargo system.[4]
A similar policy had been earlier expressed in 1960 by Samuel Goudsmit, editor of the Physical Review Letters, but it did not become as well known.[5]
The Ingelfinger rule has been seen as having the aim of preventing authors from performing duplicate publications which would unduly inflate their publication record.[6] On the other hand, it has also been stated that the real reason for the Ingelfinger rule is to protect the journals' revenue stream, and with the increase in popularity of preprint servers [7] such as arXiv, bioRxiv, and HAL many journals have loosened their requirements concerning the Ingelfinger rule.[8] In a defense of the policy, the journal said in an editorial that the practice discouraged scientists from talking to the media before their work was peer reviewed.[9]
See also
References
- ^ "Definition of 'sole contribution'". New England Journal of Medicine. 281 (12): 676–677. September 1969. doi:10.1056/NEJM196909182811208. PMID 5807917. Note: Though written by Ingelfinger, this editorial was published anonymously.
- ^ Marshall, E (1998). "Franz Ingelfinger's Legacy Shaped Biology Publishing". Science. 282 (5390): 861–3, 865–7. doi:10.1126/science.282.5390.861. PMID 9841429.
- ^ "Ingelfinger rule definition". Medicine.net. 13 June 2000. Archived from the original on 2014-07-11. Retrieved 2011-08-20.
- ^ Schachtman, NA (20 June 2014). "Selective Leaking — Breaking Ingelfinger's Rule". Schachtman Law Blog. Retrieved 2015-05-23.
- ^ Lewenstein, BV (1988). "It's Not Really the Relman Rule". ScienceWriters. 36 (2): 17–18.
- ^ Lariviere, V; Gingras, Y (2009). "On the prevalence and scientific impact of duplicate publications in different scientific fields (1980-2007)". arXiv:0906.4019 [physics.soc-ph].
- ^ Heidary, Fatemeh; Gharebaghi, Reza (2021-05-31). "COVID-19 impact on research and publication ethics". Medical Hypothesis, Discovery & Innovation in Ophthalmology. 10 (1): 1–4. doi:10.51329/mehdiophthal1414. PMC 10460218. PMID 37641621. S2CID 236407601.
- ^ Borgman, CL (2007). Scholarship in the digital age: information, infrastructure, and the Internet. MIT Press. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-262-02619-2.
- ^ Angell, M; Kassirer, J (1991). "The Ingelfinger Rule Revisited". The New England Journal of Medicine. 325 (19): 1371–1373. doi:10.1056/NEJM199111073251910. PMID 1669838.
Further reading
- Relman, AS (1981). "The Ingelfinger Rule". The New England Journal of Medicine. 305 (14): 824–6. doi:10.1056/NEJM198110013051408. PMID 7266634.
- Spain, A (26 February 2011). "Casting a critical eye on the embargo system: one year of Embargo Watch". Association of British Science Writers. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
- Altman, LK (1996). "The Ingelfinger rule, embargoes, and journal peer review–Part 1". The Lancet. 347 (9012): 1382–6. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(96)91016-8. PMID 8637347. S2CID 44524038.
- Toy, J (2002). "The Ingelfinger Rule: Franz Ingelfinger at the New England Journal of Medicine 1967–77" (PDF). Science Editor. 25 (6): 195–198.[permanent dead link]
- Harnad, S (2000). "Ingelfinger Over-Ruled: The Role of the Web in the Future of Refereed Medical Journal Publishing". The Lancet Perspectives. 356: s16. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(00)92002-6. PMID 11191471.
- White, E (2014). "Why the Ecology Letters editorial board should reconsider its No vote on preprints". Jabberwocky Ecology.
- Desjardins-Proulx, P; White, EP; Adamson, JJ; Ram, K; Poisot, T; Gravel, D (2013). "The Case for Open Preprints in Biology". PLOS Biology. 11 (5): e1001563. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001563. PMC 3653830. PMID 23690752.