Q: Can I publish a case report that is already accepted by an English journal in a Japanese journal?

A translation of an article already published in another language can be published in an international English language journal and vice versa as a secondary publication. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) refers to this kind of publication as “acceptable secondary publication” and states that this is justifiable in cases where an article needs to reach the widest possible audience through republication in another language.

However, there are some pre-conditions that authors need to take care of:

• The authors must receive formal approval from the editors of both journals, and the journal editor responsible for the secondary publication must have a copy of the primary published version.
• There should be an interval of a reasonable amount of time between  the two publications.
• The secondary publication should be clearly intended for a different group of readers, and should faithfully reflect the data and interpretations discussed in the primary version.
• In the secondary publication, the title should indicate that the paper has been published before, and a footnote on the title page should provide a reference for the primary publication.

I believe you wish to publish in the Japanese journal to increase the dissemination of your report. I understand that case reports are about unusual or novel patient cases and thus help increase knowledge about the condition. However, I would recommend writing to the English journal seeking their permission, whether or not you use different figures. You have already received permission from the Japanese journal and have also decided to mention there that the report was published earlier. Obtaining permission from the English journal is essential if you wish to publish a translated version of your paper. If you don’t take permission, this might be considered a case of duplicate publication and, and they later come to know you have published it elsewhere and this is against their policy, they may retract the report, which affects your credibility.

With regard to figures, if you are using the same figures, you have to take permission from the copyright holder(usually the journal). If you decide to use different figures, ensure that as earlier, the patient’s identity is not compromised.

Related reading:

• Can I republish my article in an international journal or present it at a conference?
• Is it self-plagiarism if I publish a translated version of my previously published paper?