Understanding research ethics
Salami slicing
#EditorObservations 22 Salami slicing (YouTube, 51s)
Salami slicing refers to the desperate practise some authors engage in to maximise the number of potential publications with the minimum number of studies conducted. Typically, it involves breaking up a larger research project and reporting on parts of it in separate articles. In the extreme case, a literature review could be published as a systematic review paper, a qualitative pre-study could be published as a stand-alone investigation as could the subsequent quantitative study. Salami slicing is not only unethical, it also reflects very poorly on the authors who engage in this practise. And in terms of the quality of papers: one strong paper that contains all the studies relating to the investigation of a research question is always much better than many weak papers reporting on aspects of a study only.
#editorobservation
We all feel the pressure from our employers to publish as many papers as we possibly can and increase our citations.
But in the long term, the scholarly reputation of a researcher is much more important (and has more significant career implications) than shallow metrics, such as number of papers published, citations and the h-index.
The question then is: what reputation do scholars choose to pursue? The reputation as a high quality researcher who pushes the boundaries of knowledge (“a legend”) or the reputation as a maker of papers (“a salami slicer”).
For those aspiring to become “legends” of tourism research, it’s best to resist the temptation to chop up one amazing piece of research into multiple mediocre papers.
#editorobservation
CAUTHE 2021 Meet the Editor Session
Another useful piece of advice: Do not “salami publish”!
Don’t chop up what was always meant to be one really really good paper into a larger number of poor papers
#editorobservation
In “salami slicing…data [from] one research project is separately reported in multiple publications“.
Publication pressures do not justify chopping up your beautiful study into a set of poor papers.
Submit complete salami
#editorobservation
In publishing, the term “salami slicing” means taking a great study and chopping it up into several papers – slices of the work.
Before the obsession with research metrics, nobody in their right mind would have considered doing that. Now, we see evidence of salami slicing routinely at Annals of Tourism Research.
The thing is: when you chop a slice off a salami, the slice tastes as good as the salami. The same cannot be said for journal articles. Many poor articles damage your reputation. One brilliant article strengthens it.
Don’t slice. Submit the full salami.
