TY - JOUR T1 - Lessons from a case of overlapping publications JF - Sexually Transmitted Infections JO - Sex Transm Infect SP - 236 LP - 238 DO - 10.1136/sti.2009.038281 VL - 85 IS - 4 AU - Elizabeth Wager AU - Richard Green Y1 - 2009/08/01 UR - http://sti.bmj.com/content/85/4/236.2.abstract N2 - This paper describes problems that arose over the publication of a study of chlamydia screening, which was completed in 2000. The account has been agreed by the authors of the papers, the editors of the two journals involved and by the Council of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The aim of revisiting events that occurred several years ago is to describe some of the difficulties that can arise, even when all parties act in good faith, with the hope of preventing similar problems in the future and to make readers aware of the publication history of the three papers. The UK Department of Health (DH) funded a large-scale study of opportunistic screening for chlamydia. One of the two centres involved in the study was Portsmouth. It was agreed from the outset that the Portsmouth data would be published separately, because screening methodology had differed between the two centres. The Portsmouth investigators therefore felt their presentation would be a valid separate analysis, with important messages for a different audience from the paper describing the national findings. A paper1 describing the national results from the study including data from Portsmouth was submitted to the BMJ in April 2002 together with an accompanying paper2 describing the methodology. The two papers were rejected by the BMJ and then submitted to Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) in June 2002, which accepted both papers in October 2002. Over the same period, the investigators from Portsmouth prepared their own paper,3 which they discussed with the DH, who agreed that it could be submitted but advised that it should not be published before the other papers. The paper from Portsmouth was submitted to STI in March 2002. However, on receiving the paper describing the national findings (in June 2002), the editor of STI (Dr Shahmanesh) … ER -