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My group is currently submitting two papers in the same venue and the first three sections of one are copy/pasted from the other. About half of the text of the two submitted papers is identical with just a few words and formatting choices changed here and there.

This seems to be the result of miscommunication. When I realized what's happening I flagged it up to my colleagues as self-plagiarism and advised that we retract one of the papers.

One of my senior colleagues instead advised that what happened is not necessarily a problem. My colleague says that it would be good practice if the two papers referred to each other but otherwise it's not an issue and it's not self-plagiarism.

My colleague is the area chair for our submission and I don't want to take the matter to the program chair because I don't wish to cause a scandal. I checked the code of conduct of other relevant venues and they all define self-plagiarism as copying one's already published work. I don't think that makes a real difference, we're still copying our own paper and not telling anyone about it. If it was someone else's paper and I noticed the same thing I would surely complain.

What is the right thing to do here? I'm worried that if we don't retract the paper and both papers get published people will notice what happened and it will leave a bad stink over the reputation of everyone who is a co-author in the paper.

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  • "My colleague is the area chair for our submission" what? This is a very clear conflict of interest and should not be happening, submission systems should not allow for this, I would worry about this aspect as well.
    – Dr. Snoopy
    Commented Aug 16 at 23:06
  • My colleague is not reviewing or making any decisions about the papers where they are the author. At least not that I know of. I think if they did then yes, that would be a huge issue but conference chairs should be able to submit their own papers in the venues they chair, especially in small fields, no? As it happens our community is indeed small and the venue in question is one of the few chances to get a paper published on our subject.
    – SolKid
    Commented Aug 18 at 20:22
  • I am not talking about being author, I am talking about being area chair for papers in the same institution as your affiliation, that is definitely frowned upon in many conferences, because its an obvious conflict of interest, even if you are not co-author in those papers.
    – Dr. Snoopy
    Commented Aug 18 at 21:41
  • My colleague is not reviewing or making any decisions about the papers where they are the author.
    – SolKid
    Commented Aug 21 at 11:14
  • Maybe I write in simple words: colleagues at the same institution should not be area chairing their colleagues' papers, and not making decisions about them, even if they are not authors or co-authors.
    – Dr. Snoopy
    Commented Aug 21 at 11:51

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Well, it certainly seems like self plagiarism unless you cite at least one of them in the other. There isn't a copyright issue (yet) as you hold copyright yourselves.

There is a small subtlety in that if neither paper is published then you can copy from either to the other. But, once you release the one copied from, plagiarism is suddenly an issue.

The reason for the "prohibition" on self-plagiarism isn't that it mischaracterizes the originator of ideas, but that it hides what may be important context that is in one paper but not included in the other. That is a disservice to scholars.

I suspect that this will be noticed by the conference committee and/or reviewers. But it is worse if not, since it will almost certainly be noticed by the audience. Your reputation will take a hit.

If one paper extends the other, then cite the extended paper in the extension. If they are "somehow" independent, you will need to find a way to provide citations that makes it clear that both paper exist and overlap.

Don't confuse copyright with plagiarism. If you hold copyright you can certainly reuse the expression. But you also need to make the context of ideas clear to readers. That is a distinct, but equally important, issue.

You run the risk of both papers being rejected, actually.

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  • Thanks for answering. I think you're right there's no copyright issue and like you suggest my main concern should be the reputational damage in case both papers get accepted for publication. At this point I feel like the best result is if both papers are rejected.
    – SolKid
    Commented Aug 18 at 20:20

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