I've been told by a few people that it can be advantageous to send somewhat similar papers to different journals (indeed, I've even been encouraged to do this) as long as the papers are not "too similar." I've also been told (by an editor of a journal!) that it can be okay to submit substantially longer, revised versions of previously published papers. As an example, John Rawls published a short version of "Justice as Fairness" in the Journal of Philosophy in 1957 and then a three-times-longer version in Philosophical Review in 1958.
I have to confess that I've been confused about all of this for quite a while. Most journals state that submissions may not have been previously published "in whole or in part" -- but where exactly is the line drawn? Should one use an "if there's any doubt" standard? Obviously, that's a very safe standard, but whenever I think of using it, I basically come to the conclusion that it is never okay, since, whenever I entertain the thought with my own papers, I always have doubts whether they're too similar. What to do, what to do? I'm curious to hear what you all think. I expect there are more than a few of you out there who have wondered the same thing!
Comments