TORONTO, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- A medical journal has castigated a University of Toronto medical researcher for quoting his own previous studies in what it called "self-plagiarism."
Editors at the Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews issued a rebuke to Stephen Matthews and two colleagues for using unattributed text from five of Matthews' previous papers in a paper published in 2005, Postmedia News reported.
The replication was uncovered by an undisclosed software program used to seek out plagiarism, the report said.
The journal issued a retraction to the report this month along with a harsh criticism.
"Re-use of any material should be appropriately cited and quoted," the journal says. "As such this article represents a severe abuse of the scientific publishing system."
The retracted paper written by Matthews and two associates focused on the effects of glucocorticoid drugs routinely used on pregnant women at risk of early delivery, Postmedia said.
Matthews' various research projects have received more than $10 million in Canadian federal funding from various agencies, which define self-plagiarism as "redundant publication" and disallow the practice, the report said.
Neither Matthews nor the university would comment on the journal's retraction.
