Q: Can a published case report be included in a case series I want to publish?
I came across an interesting case which I submitted for publication in a non-pubmed indexed local journal. Now I came across multiple similar cases and I would like to submit them for a case series, is that possible/ethical? Given that the initial publication was in a local journal, is it okay to use some of the discussion from that one due to the similarity of the cases or does the discussion have to be from different sources?
Thank you for this question. It is surely possible (and ethical) to submit further cases as a series (separate paper) after the initial one is published.
As for repeating the same text - this would constitute self-plagiarism and I advise you to cite your original publication if you do so. In this case, given that you are the original writer of the text and the original paper is cited, this would not be unethical.
However, I strongly suggest that you cite the original publication and use different (slightly rephrased) text and not copy-pasted text as journals use plagiarism detection software. So, in short, you may write new cases and submit a case series, but we strongly suggest that text from the original publication is altered and all copy/pasting reduced to absolute minimum.
Hope this helps. All the best for your study!
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