On publishing ethics: a review of conventions and practices

A writer's work, whether scientific or literary, involves certain ethical risks, some of which are peculiar to psychoanalysis. Although the ethics of publishing reports that contain sensitive clinical material has been discussed extensively in the psychoanalytic literature, the ethics of publishing material taken from other publications or oral presentations that do not directly involve patients has been scarcely dealt with. This paper considers issues of ownership of such material, plagiarism, copyright and its violations, and the possibility of a negative reaction on the part of the original author. Characteristic cases are cited along with suggestions about how to handle them.