EDITORIAL: HOW TO HALT PLAGIARISM: AWARENESS, WARNING OR PUNISHMENT!

Literally, plagiarism means “to take and use” the thoughts, writings, inventions, etc of another person as one’s own. now a days it is a hot topic in the scientific publishing. plagiarism results in distortion of the scientific record and in biomedical research it may be detrimental for the patients. plagiarism is difficult to detect, especially if it occurs in journals with a small readership. jour- nals and institutions should take allegations of pla- giarism more seriously. systematic reviews and the use of software designed to detect plagiarism can help to identify cases, but unless perpetrators face greater sanctions the problem is unlikely to go away. to reduce the number of new as well as recurrent plagiarists, journals, institutions, and pro- fessional associations need to expose very publicly those found guilty of plagiarism.