UST faculty member probed for alleged duplicate publications

MANILA, Philippines — A faculty member from the University of Santo Tomas (UST) is under investigation for allegedly publishing three of his papers twice, a report from a publications watchdog said.

In an exclusive report from Retraction Watch, a website and database that “tracks retractions in scholarly literature,” it said that Daniel Berdida, an editor from publishing company Wiley, published his articles under different titles, violating journal policies.

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The duplicated articles were as follows:

• “The mediating roles of moral courage and moral resilience between nurses’ moral distress and moral injury: an online cross-sectional study.” (A duplicate of “Moral distress, moral resilience, moral courage, and moral injury among nurses in the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic: a mediation analysis.”)
• “Nurses’ professional values and competency in Saudi Arabia: A structural equation modelling approach.” (A duplicate of “Structural equation modelling of ethicomoral values and competence of nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic.”)
• “Safety climate, quality of care, adherence to and compliance with standard precautions among nurses: Structural equation modeling.” (A duplicate of “Nurses’ safety climate, quality of care, and standard precautions adherence and compliance: A cross-sectional study.”)

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“One of the duplicates, which appeared last year in Nurse Education in Practice, an Elsevier title, has already been slated for retraction, according to emails we have seen. The other offending articles were published in Wiley journals,” Retraction Watch said in its report.

It added that Berdida acknowledged his violation after being confronted by Nurse Education in Practice editor-in-chief Roger Watson, citing a “breakdown in communication” with his research assistant, which “led to the current situation.”