I explain plainly what is salami silcing, a practice of fragmenting single research into as many publications as possible. Salami publishing and hazards

1. WHAT IS
SALAMI SLICING
Explaining scientific publication
trends
Insight

2. WHAT IS SALAMI SLICING
Salami is a meat product, like a sausage.
We love to slice it thinly to many pieces.
Although many slices, they are still a salami
In publication, one can create many papers from one single idea or experiment
The practice of fragmenting single research into as many publications as possible

3. SALAMI SLICING
Scientific salami slicing is the practice of fragmenting single coherent bodies of
research into as many publications as possible
An author breaks up a study into two or more smaller published articles, they are
creating “slices” of their work.
A single research is divided into “slices,” each of which is a “least publishable unit.”
Authors do it to increase their publication count, to get more recognition, to achieve
self satisfaction, to achieve faster career progression, to receive more funding

4. WHY SALAMI SLICING
The desire to publish new results rapidly.
The desire of researchers to maximize their publication count, but limited conditions
of funding and university
Publish or perish climate
Overemphasis on the size of an individual's publication record as a means of
quantifying their research output
Rewards quantity over quality.
The volume of a researcher’s publication output is a criterion on which their scientific
accomplishment is judged.

5. EXAMPLES OF SALAMI EXPERTS

6. TANSU SALAMI
Dr Tansu KÜÇÜKÖNCÜ from Turkey
Salami Article
“An Intelligent and Automatic Face Shape Prediction System From Fingerprints”
by Seref Sagiroglu and Necla Ozkaya

7. NECLA OZKAYA
Seref Sagiroglu, Necla Ozkaya
An Intelligent and Automatic Face Shape Prediction System From Fingerprints
Intelligent Automation and Soft Computing, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 309-317, 2011
DOI: 10.1080/10798587.2011.10643150
Şeref Sağıroğlu, Necla Özkaya,
“An intelligent face feature generation system from fingerprints”,
TÜBİTAK Elektrik, vol.17, no.2, 2009, 183-203
Necla Ozkaya, Seref Sagiroglu
Generating One Biometric Feature from Another: Faces from Fingerprints
Sensors 2010, 10, 4206-4237; doi:10.3390/s100504206

8. TANSU SALAMI

9. SALAMI SLICING: NELSON TANSUSurface plasmon dispersion engineering via double-metallic Au/Ag layers for nitride light-emitting diodes

10. SALAMI SLICING: NELSON TANSU
HOW DEEP IS YOUR QUANTUM WELL?
Gain characteristics of deep UV AlGaN quantum wells lasers

11. ENHANCEMENT OF LIGHT EXTRACTION EFFICIENCY OR
LIGHT EXTRACTION EFFICIENCY ENHANCEMENT??
Ee, Y.-K., Kumnorkaew, P., Arif, R.A., Tong, H., Gilchrist, J.F., Tansu, N.2009. Light extraction efficiency
enhancement of InGaN quantum wells light-emitting diodes with polydimethylsiloxane concave
microstructuresOptics Express 17 (16), pp. 13747-13757
Ee, Y.-K., Kumnorkaew, P., Tong, H., Arif, R.A., Gilchrist, J.F., Tansu, N. 2009. Enhancement of light
extraction efficiency of InGaN quantum wells light-emitting diodes with polydimethylsiloxane concave
microstructures
Proceedings of SPIE – The International Society for Optical Engineering 7231, art. no. 72310U

12. SALAMI SLICING: NELSON TANSU
EFFICIENTLY EXTRACTING 2 PAPERS
Optimization of light extraction efficiency of III-nitride LEDs with self-assembled
colloidal-based microlenses

13. SALAMI SLICING:
NELSON TANSU
Abbreviated MOVPE nucleation of III-nitride light-emitting diodes on nano-patterned sapphire
Ee Yik-Khoon; Li Xiao-Hang; Biser Jeff; Tansu Nelson
Conference: 17th Amer Conference on Crystal Growth and Epitaxy/14th United States Biennial
JOURNAL OF CRYSTAL GROWTH Volume: 312 Issue: 8
Pages:1311-1315 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2009.10.029 Published: APR
1 2010
Abbreviated GaN Metalorganic Vapor Phase Epitaxy Growth Mode on Nano-Patterned
Sapphire for Enhanced Efficiency of InGaN-Based Light-Emitting Diodes
Author(s): Ee Yik-Khoon; Li Xiao-Hang; Biser Jeff; Tansu Nelson
Proceedings of SPIE Volume: 7617 Article Number: 76170G DOI: 10.1117/12.841503

14. SALAMI SLICING: NELSON TANSU
NOVEL GROWTH OF PAPERS
Zhao, H., Liu, G., Li, X.-H., Ee, Y.-K., HuaTong, Zhang, J., Huang, G.S., Tansu, N.2010
Novel growth and device concepts for high-efficiency InGaN quantum wells light-
emitting diodes
Lasers and Electro-Optics/Quantum Electronics and Laser Science
Conference: 2010 Laser Science to Photonic Applications, CLEO/QELS 2010 , art. no.
5501113
Tansu, N., Zhao, H., Zhang, J., Liu, G., Li, X.-H., Ee, Y.-K., Song, R., (…), Huang, G.S.
2011
Novel approaches for high-efficiency InGaN quantum wells light-emitting diodes:
Device physics and epitaxy engineering Proceedings of SPIE – The International
Society for Optical
Engineering 7954, art. no. 795418

15. FIRST SLICE
CK Tan, D Borovac, W Sun, N Tansu, First-Principle Electronic Properties of Dilute-P
GaN1-xPx Alloy for Visible Light Emitters. Scientific Reports 6, 24412
CK Tan, N Tansu First-Principle Natural Band Alignment of GaN / Dilute-As GaNAs
Alloy AIP Advances 5 (1), 017129

16. WHY NELSON TANSU LIKES SALAMI
Tansu desires to publish new results rapidly.
Tansu desires to maximize their publication count.
Tansu Publish or perish
Overemphasis on the size of Tansu's publication record
Tansu rewards quantity over quality.
The volume of Tansu’s publication output is a single criterion on which his scientific
accomplishment is judged by Lehigh University.

17. HEDVIG HRICAK
Lakhman, Katz, Goldman, Yakar, Vargas, Sosa, Miccò, Soslow, Hricak, Abu-Rustum
and Sala, “Diagnostic Performance of Computed Tomography for Preoperative
Staging of Patients with Non-endometrioid Carcinomas of the Uterine Corpus”, Ann
Surg Oncol. 2016
Lakhman, Yakar, Goldman, Katz, Vargas, Miccò, Zheng, Moskowitz, Soslow, Hricak,
Abu-Rustum and Sala, “Preoperative CT-based nomogram for predicting overall
survival in women with non-endometrioid carcinomas of the uterine corpus”, Abdom
Imaging (now titled Abdominal Radiology), 2015

18. HEDVIG HRICAK
Vargas, Burger, Donati, Andikyan, Lakhman, Goldman, Schöder, Chi, Sala, Hricak.
“Magnetic resonance imaging/positron emission tomography provides a roadmap for
surgical planning and serves as a predictive biomarker in patients with recurrent
gynecological cancers undergoing pelvic exenteration”. Int J Gynecol Cancer. 2013
Burger, Vargas, Donati, Andikyan, Sala, Gonen, Goldman, Chi, Schöder, Hricak. The
value of 18F-FDG PET/CT in recurrent gynecologic malignancies prior to pelvic
exenteration. Gynecol Oncol. 2013
Donati, Lakhman, Sala, Burger, Vargas, Goldman, Andikyan, Park, Chi, Hricak. Role of
preoperative MR imaging in the evaluation of patients with persistent or recurrent
gynaecological malignancies before pelvic exenteration. Eur Radiol. 2013

19. DALIBOR PETKOVIĆ
Dalibor Petković, Shahaboddin Shamshirband, Nor Badrul Anuar, Mohd Hairul Nizam
Md Nasir, Nenad T. Pavlović & Shatirah Akib. (2014). Adaptive neuro-fuzzy
prediction of modulation transfer function of optical lens system. Infrared Physics &
Technology 65, p. 54–60.
Dalibor Petković, Shahaboddin Shamshirband, Hadi Saboohi, Tan Fong Ang, Nor
Badrul Anuar, Zulkanain Abdul Rahman, Nenad T. Pavlović. (2014). Evaluation of
modulation transfer function of optical lens system by support vector regression
methodologies: A comparative study. Infrared Physics & Technology 65, p. 94–102.
Dalibor Petković, Shahaboddin Shamshirband, Nenad T. Pavlović, Nor Badrul Anuar,
Laiha Mat Kiah. (2014). Modulation transfer function estimation of optical lens system
by adaptive neuro-fuzzy methodology. Optics and Spectroscopy 117(1), p. 121-131.

20. KING & QUEEN OF SALAMI

21. THE PRICE OF SALAMI SLICING
Time spent on papers that make little contribution to new scientific understanding is
time wasted.
Focus on quality, not on quantity.
If you are using data from articles that you have previously published, make sure you
cite them in your paper.

22. SALAMI SLICING
The challenge is not only to establish quantity of a researcher's scientific contribution,
but the scientific rigour and not merely numerical output.