Sir.—I found it interesting to read Goetzman's comments1 in the December 1990 issue of AJDC concerning the effects of selecting a new department head. As a practicing physician, I had no insight into some of what he mentioned. I was struck, however, by the comment that junior faculty members are said to "sacrifice" their careers if they are to "keep clinical programs afloat." In other words, caring for the sick will interfere with the need to publish. In the editorial by Bier et al2 in the same issue, several editors discuss their methods for dealing with "selfplagiarism." The motivation for this activity is to enlarge the physician's list of publications.
In reality, the cause of "self-plagiarism" is the mind-set evidenced by Goetzman's comments. I have no quarrel with research. All of what I do is based on what researchers have done before me. However, I have a