Q: Can I republish my article in an international journal or present it at a conference?

A translation of an article already published in another language can be published in an international English language journal 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, a number of conditions need to be met for this:

• 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.

If you wish to present the article at international society conferences, whether in the same field or in other fields, you can submit your abstract to the conference, but clearly mention the original Japanese publication in your cover letter. 

It is a good idea to rewrite the article and disseminate the knowledge through seminars or magazine columns, but you can do that even after you have republished it. You should first try to republish the article as a secondary publication in an English language journal: this would increase your readership as well as establish your credibility internationally.