Proofig AI’s MyDatabase protects institutions from self-plagiarism
The feature securely stores published and unpublished research images in a private library under a user’s control and automatically checks every new manuscript against stored images to detect unintentional reuse.
Incidents of self-plagiarism are on the rise, with analysis in Taylor & Francis journal Accountability in Research finding that self-plagiarism accounts for 25% of all retracted papers between 2001 and 2022, with 46% of those retractions because of image duplication. Biomedical sciences, medicine, chemistry and biology were highlighted as the most affected subject areas, with self-plagiarised manuscripts often having multiple authors.
With MyDatabase, users can upload previously published papers, grant applications, conference posters, and other research documents which will be indexed and referenced for future checks to protect new submissions from unintended reuse.
“The prominence of self-plagiarism underscores the need for proactive detection tools to be included into researchers’ workflows,” explained Dr. Dror Kolodkin-Gal, Co-Founder of Proofig AI. “We have developed a first-of-its-kind repository that allows users to thoroughly screen their work, offering protection that goes beyond existing open-access tools.”
As in many image integrity cases, self-plagiarism is often unintentional but the retractions can lead to reputational damage for both researchers and institutions.
Detecting self-plagiarism adds to Proofig’s capability of screening images for duplication, alteration and manipulation, along with plagiarism of others. MyDatabase is fully integrated within the Proofig AI framework and operates automatically to provide continuous, real-time protection for future manuscripts.
MyDatabase is currently only available to enterprise clients within research institutions.
For more startup news, check out the other articles on the website, and subscribe to the magazine for free. Listen to The Cereal Entrepreneur podcast for more interviews with entrepreneurs and big-hitters in the startup ecosystem.
