A multi-institution, NSF-funded initiative investigating text recycling in STEM research
The Text Recycling Research Project is the first large-scale investigation of researchers’ reuse of materials from their own prior work in new documents. Our aim is to better understand text recycling, to help build consensus among stakeholders, and to promote ethical and appropriate practice.
Those doing research and those publishing it often have different needs and concerns. The TRRP has resources for different constituencies.
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An excellent site and resources about text recycling/self-plagiarism. It has material for researchers, editors and students. A worthy addition to your resource library matters to consult when reporting the results of research. A recommended resource for researchers of all levels of experience. We have included links to seven related items.
As the use of plagiarism-detection software by research journals and academic institutions grows, more instances of text recycling are being identified—and yet there is no consensus on what constitutes ethically or legally acceptable practice. Text recycling is thus an increasingly important and problematic matter in research ethics and publishing. Nonetheless, and in spite of the proliferation of journal editorials and guidelines on the topic, little actual research on text recycling has been conducted, and it is rarely addressed in the ethical training of researchers or in scientific writing textbooks or websites. The Text Recycling Research Project is the first large-scale investigation of the subject. Our aim is to better understand text recycling, to help build consensus among stakeholders, and to promote ethical and appropriate practice.
The TRRP has an advisory board with experts from major publishers (both profit and non-profit), editor organizations, scholarly societies, government research agencies, and research integrity officers. Our guidelines and policies are vetted by the board to ensure that they will be useful and appropriate for a broad range of research and publishing constituencies. You can find the list of board members on our People page.
Research
Our research involves three primary areas of investigation:
Beliefs and Attitudes: This involves interviewing and surveying experienced faculty, students, journal editors, and others regarding the ethics of text recycling. We are investigating questions such as these: What do expert researchers, students, and others involved in scientific communication believe to be appropriate practice, and why? Where is there a clear consensus among experts and where is there substantive disagreement?
