Another resource for sleuths

This tweet by Elizabeth Bik is very useful:

Such similarities are easily found by putting text between quotes into Google Scholar https://t.co/AqNTE1SCSd
Then, analyze textual similarities in more detail in SimTexter, provided by @WeWuWiWo here: https://t.co/BYGAHNF3G1#TextForensics pic.twitter.com/FDBPxVCAfg

— Elisabeth Bik (@MicrobiomDigest) November 4, 2019

The site she used to detect a publication that was self-plagiarized not only in terms of data and analyses but also in terms of text can be found here: Similarity Texter. I will be adding that site to this blog's links. I think as a peer reviewer it will help in detecting potential problem documents. Obviously I see the utility for post-peer review. Finally, any of us as authors who publish multiple articles and chapters on the same topic would do well to run our manuscripts through this particular website prior to submission to any publishing portal. Let's be real and accept that the major publishing houses are very lax when it comes to screening for potential duplicate publication, in spite of the enormous profits that they make from taxpayers across the planet. We should also be real about the quality of peer review. As someone who has been horrified to receive feedback on manuscript from a supposedly reputable journal in less than 48 hours, I think a good case can be made as an author for taking things into your own hands as much as possible. That along with statcheck can save some embarrassment as well as ensure that we as researchers and authors do due diligence to serve the public good.