On the Thorny Issue of Single Submission

Abstract

This Opinion highlights varying viewpoints on the single-submission policy in scientific publishing, which has recently come under attack. The rule permits the sequential, rather than simultaneous, submission of a manuscript to more than one journal and dictates that an author(s) must wait for a response from one journal before resubmitting the same work to another for consideration. A corollary is that legitimising multiple submissions would create more problems than it could solve. This article is, therefore, in favour of maintaining the status quo.