The original article, published in April, 2015.
This later article, published in September, 2015, apparently uses the earlier article as a template.
Another apparent case of “template-plagiarism” in a BioMed Central (BMC) journal has come to light following my blog post on a similar case recently. It appears that the later article was created using the earlier one as a template, as in the earlier case. Both papers appear in the same journal, Diagnostic Pathology.
In this case, the original paper is “Decreased expression of microRNA-124 is an independent unfavorable prognostic factor for patients with breast cancer.” It was submitted to the journal in November, 2014 and published at the end of April, 2015. There is no evidence or indication of any ethical problems with this earlier paper.
The later paper is entitled “Down-regulated microRNA-124 expression as predictive biomarker and its prognostic significance with clinicopathological features in breast cancer patients.” According to the paper, it was received on June 3, 2015, accepted on August 28, 2015, and published on September 29, 2015.
Like the last case, this later paper is short, with only about two pages of text. It does not cite the earlier paper. Much of the text almost or nearly matches the text of the earlier paper. The papers’ conclusions demonstrate this similarity:
Similar conclusions.
The article lists the five co-authors as:
Ali Arabkheradmand, Department of Surgery, Cancer and Reconstructive Surgeon, Cancer Institute, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Aghdas Safari, Department of Gynecology, Khanevadeh Hospital, AJA University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Mehri Seifoleslami, Department of Gynecology, Khanevadeh Hospital, AJA University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Emad Yahaghi, Department of Molecular Biology, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Masoumeh Gity, Department of Radiology, Medical Imaging Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Again, BMC lists the editor-in-chief of Diagnostic Pathology as Anil V. Parwani from Ohio State University.
How many other cases are there like this in BioMed Central Jornals?
