Editorial
The challenges of success

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Misuse of statistics

The advent of computerised statistical software packages has been particularly harmful to critical thinking and the generation of hypotheses. All too often, a weak paper is spiced up by running it through a seemingly sophisticated analysis which throws up one or other significant variables, which are then made central to the paper, regardless of the lack of a credible hypothesis. Such use of statistics is not persuasive. Good data speaks for itself. Moreover, large volumes of marginal data

Publication fraud

Publication fraud is the ugly side of professional behaviour. The EJSO has uncovered its fair share of such cases in recent years, and fraud detection and response are regrettably a major challenge for journals and editorial teams. Publication malpractice takes many forms, from the relatively innocent to the wilfully deceitful and dishonest. When editors and reviewers had local and regional knowledge, it was relatively easy to police the literature. With a worldwide authorship, and with

Sanctions and publication fraud

Plagiarism is not a victimless crime, not least in terms of the editorial time, energy and resources required to investigate and address the individual cases. There is considerable cooperation between different publishers when malpractice is discovered, and authors must assume that misdemeanours will come to light. While plagiarism in the scientific literature has yet to be criminalised in most jurisdictions, the personal professional embarrassment arising from detection and disclosure can be

The future of the EJSO

Despite its worldwide projection, the EJSO seeks to remain close to its roots in BASO and ESSO, whose members and subscribers have made this progress possible, and whose board representatives meet regularly with the publishers in a constructive and dynamic dialogue. We have come a long way in a short time and in a crowded intellectual marketplace to stand tall among our international competitor journals. We very much hope that the continued support of our society members and subscribers will be

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