Self-Plagiarism and Text Recycling

Yes, but with important conditions. You must disclose to the journal that the work is based on a previously published dissertation (e.g., 'This article is based on the author's doctoral dissertation, University X, 2020'). Some publishers require explicit permission or may require that you modify the work substantially before accepting it. Check the journal's author guidelines about prior publication. If your dissertation is already in a university repository (ProQuest, institutional archive), you must disclose this. Some journals will not accept work that has been distributed widely in dissertation form. Always ask the editor before submitting.

Citing your own work is good practice and shows the lineage of your research. However, citation alone does not permit verbatim reuse of substantial text. If you are reusing methods language across related studies, cite the prior paper and consider whether the methods have truly not changed—if they are identical, note that. For results and discussion, substantial new writing is expected. You can cite your prior findings and build on them, but copying your prior discussion verbatim requires quotation marks or substantial rewriting. As a rule, if a reader could not tell that new writing has occurred, rewrite the section.

It depends on the journal and field. In biomedicine, preprints (on servers like medRxiv) are increasingly accepted, and many journals permit submission of preprinted work if you disclose it. In other fields, preprint servers are less common or may be considered prior publication. Check the target journal's policy on preprints in their author guidelines. Most journals require you to disclose if the manuscript is posted on a preprint server. Disclose proactively to avoid rejection. If you post on a preprint server, update the journal submission to include the preprint DOI.

Yes, you can revise and resubmit to a different journal without disclosing the prior rejection. However, if the new submission uses substantially the same text, it may show high similarity to the prior submission in database checks. Rewrite and strengthen the manuscript substantially, and do not verbatim copy from the rejected version. The prohibition against redundant publication applies to accepted and published work, not rejected submissions. However, if you significantly reuse text, you should disclose the prior submission in the cover letter, as editors often ask about prior submissions of related work.