Plagiarism: Where Unawareness Makes a Lame Excuse

It is said that duplication, co-submission, and plagiarism are “the three major sins of modern publishing.”1 This is something that everybody acknowledges, but can we claim it is negligible if the “sin” is minor or if we are unaware of or question its sinful nature? The young Iranian medical research community is going through critical times; publication ethics ought to keep pace with our scientific production, before we have to face the consequences, some already showing their signs.