The Editorial in the March issue of Nature Immunology (10, 225; 2009) addresses the vexed question of plagiarism: what it is, and what funders are doing about it when it is discovered. From the Editorial:

Publishers, too, are taking steps to combat the rise of plagiarism and to protect the intellectual property rights of their authors. Internet-based search tools have been developed to detect potential cases of plagiarism. Online publication has also facilitated the creation of a textual database, called ‘CrossRef’, where published content can be deposited and annotated by various ‘meta tags’. Nature Publishing Group and over 40 other publishers, as participating members of CrossRef, routinely deposit published papers into this database. In 2008, the developers of CrossRef also launched a service called CrossCheck, which uses the iThenticate Internet-based tool developed by iParadigms to compare a selected paper with the entire database to assess textual similarity. Akin to a search of a protein or nucleic acid database, textual similarity scores are reported after the search program is run, and the context of the similarity can be displayed so that the user (in this case, an editor) can further inspect those manuscripts deemed ‘suspect’. The incorporation of such tools into the normal editorial workflow should help diminish the likelihood of plagiarism in manuscripts that might otherwise have passed peer review. Nature Publishing Group journals will be using this tool to scrutinize manuscripts selected for publication.

Still, the onus is on mentors and laboratory chiefs to serve as examples of good scientific conduct. They should initiate discussions about what constitutes plagiarism and ‘self plagiarism’, as well as other forms of misconduct, with their trainees. Mentors should recognize their obligation to help trainees to develop and hone good written communication skills that follow high ethical standards. Likewise, colleagues, referees and editors all must accept their responsibility to safeguard scientific literature against the possibility of plagiarism or dual publication. Scientific integrity includes the ability to acknowledge good ideas and to give proper credit due to original authors.

The Nature journals’ policies on plagiarism are here.

The Nature journals’ policies on duplicate publication are here.