Both thank you for the reasoned comments, and you're welcome. Also, I cede the "theoretical" point, as that was mostly me being snarky.
I agree that publishing the 'exact' same results is a no go, and that will usually get you a demerit (it's just too easy to discover these days). However, I would argue that the level of detail/justification that people change can vary dramatically. Some people are on the honest end of the scale, like you say, and change each version significantly. In fact, to step away from hyperbole, I would say that probably most trend that way.
However, I feel like the current system also incentivizes dishonesty, particularly with how brutal the associate professor and tenure tracks have gotten for many fields. For example, while CS is a relatively nice field, since its both new, and the job market for its PhDs is hot, others like Physics, Math, most liberal arts, ect... are awful, with 10:1 ratios in some cases between candidates and positions. In those, you'd better be perceived as a rockstar, or you're going to be flipping burgers. And the natural way to be seen as a rockstar? Publish. A lot.
Actually, now that I think about it, that would probably make a good sociology paper. Possible correlations of plagiarism, minor-edit multi-submissions, yatta... to the level of competition for professor spots.
I agree that publishing the 'exact' same results is a no go, and that will usually get you a demerit (it's just too easy to discover these days). However, I would argue that the level of detail/justification that people change can vary dramatically. Some people are on the honest end of the scale, like you say, and change each version significantly. In fact, to step away from hyperbole, I would say that probably most trend that way.
However, I feel like the current system also incentivizes dishonesty, particularly with how brutal the associate professor and tenure tracks have gotten for many fields. For example, while CS is a relatively nice field, since its both new, and the job market for its PhDs is hot, others like Physics, Math, most liberal arts, ect... are awful, with 10:1 ratios in some cases between candidates and positions. In those, you'd better be perceived as a rockstar, or you're going to be flipping burgers. And the natural way to be seen as a rockstar? Publish. A lot.
Actually, now that I think about it, that would probably make a good sociology paper. Possible correlations of plagiarism, minor-edit multi-submissions, yatta... to the level of competition for professor spots.