The Ingelfinger Rule Revisited

THE Journal has long had a policy, known as the Ingelfinger Rule, of considering a manuscript for publication only if its substance has not been submitted or reported elsewhere. This policy was promulgated in 1969 by the editor, Franz J. Ingelfinger,1 to protect the Journal from publishing material that had already been published and thus had lost its originality. The policy was maintained by Ingelfinger's successor, Arnold S. Relman,2 , 3 who saw it as a way to discourage the public announcement of research findings before publication in a scientific journal, as well as to discourage the growing practice of redundant publication. . . .