Ar:.  7:'-'-r-  P^?-r~. 
July,  1919. 
Editorial. 
405 
of  common  honesty.  Journalistic  courtesy  alone  should  determine 
that  due  credit  be  given  alike  to  the  author  and  to  the  source  of 
original  publication  and  any  other  course  is  simply  the  appropriation 
of  another's  rights  and  property  and  a  violation  of  this  law  of  the 
decalogue.  [Moreover,  the  palming  off  of  a  prior  publication  as  an 
original  contribution  of  the  author  or  even  the  abstracting  of  an 
article  without  giving  credit  to  the  original  publication,  is  a  deliberate 
act  of  deception  practiced  against  the  subscribers  of  the  journal  and 
is  even  less  pardonable  than  the  ordinary  deceptions  of  trade. 
The  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  scrupulously  adheres 
to  the  principle  of  giving  with  each  article  the  source  of  the  original 
publication  and.  if  an  abstract,  tracing  wherever  possible  the  course 
of  the  preparation  of  such  abstract.  This  is  simply  an  upright 
recognition  of  our  obligation  to  be  honest  with  authors  and  readers 
alike  and  an  observance  of  the  just  rule  to  give  honor  and  credit  to 
those  to  whom  such  is  due.  It  is  not  the  intent  of  the  publishers  of 
this  Journal  to  claim  absolute  ownership  of  the  papers  and  con- 
tributions published  originally  therein.  Neither  is  it  our  purpose 
to  copyright  or  otherwise  limit  republication.  To  the  contrary  we 
welcome  the  widest  distribution  of  every  item  of  information  of 
value  to  pharmacists  or  others  and  after  publication  the  articles  are 
subject  to  such  use.  We  do.  however,  insist  that  in  all  such  republi- 
cations of  papers  and  articles  originally  published  in  the  American 
Journal  of  Pharmacy  there  should  be  appended  a  statement 
crediting  the  original  publication. 
We  recognize  that  most  of  the  contemporary  pharmaceutical 
journals  are  conscientiously  observing  this  principle  of  journalistic 
courtesy.  A  study  of  the  current  literature  will,  however,  show 
that  there  are  a  few  editors  who  are  negligent  and  at  times  exceed- 
ingly careless  in  their  observance  of  this  editorial  propriety.  There 
is  now  before  the  writer  a  current  pharmaceutical  journal  whose 
pages  are  almost  entirely  filled  with  copied  articles  for  which,  with 
one  exception,  no  credit  is  given  to  the  original  publication  and  of 
these  three  are  copied  from  the  pages  of  the  American  Journal  of 
Pharmacy.  A  most  charitable  view  will  not  permit  one  to  attribute 
such  an  example  of  plagiarism  to  "  subconscious  absorption." 
G.  M.  B. 
