Autoplagiarism and Its Impact on Maritime Occupational Health

Abstract

Introduction: Scientific integrity violations in maritime occupational health research have escalated alarmingly, yet remain systematically
underexamined. This study aimed to map patterns, triggering factors, and ethical implications of autoplagiarism within maritime worker
research publications.
Method: A narrative review was conducted across PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar (2015–2025), yielding eight
synthesized articles.
Results: Three dominant autoplagiarism manifestations were identified: redundant publication, text recycling, and salami publication, driven
by scarce primary data accessibility, absence of domain-specific publication ethics guidelines, publish-or-perish pressures, and homogeneous
researcher communities undermining peer-review.
Conclusions: These practices systematically distort the evidence base informing IMO and ILO maritime health policies while impeding
genuine intervention innovation for globally vulnerable seafaring populations. Comprehensive reform across three levels is urgently warranted:
mandatory prior publication disclosure by journal editors, ethics literacy institutionalization in postgraduate curricula, and establishment of
an open maritime research data registry to structurally eliminate dataset recycling incentives.