It has been brought to our attention that an article by Paul Corris entitled “A practical approach to the diagnosis of venothromboembolism” published in the CME General Internal Medicine section of Clinical Medicine 2001;1:274–81 includes substantial duplication of paragraphs published in a supplement to Thorax entitled “Suspected acute pulmonary embolism: a practical approach” (Thorax 1997;52(Suppl 4):S1–24).

Professor Corris adds the following comment: “I fully acknowledge that my article published in the CME General Internal Medicine Section of Clinical Medicine was based on a previous article published in a supplement to Thorax written by David Ellis, Noeleen Foley, Andrew Miller, and me. An initial sentence acknowledging the Thorax supplement as the basis of the article and the contribution of my co-authors should have been included, and this was a simple error of omission for which I apologise. I would, however, comment that the article published in Clinical Medicine was an invited review based on a talk given by me at a conference organised by the Royal College of Physicians and that my talk was based on the Thorax supplement. Furthermore, both articles comprised clinical reviews and it was my prior understanding that duplicate publication was defined as the deliberate attempt by an author to publish the same research data as a novel paper in more than one journal. It would now appear that the same rules apply to those writing reviews, and this is an important message for all who accept invitations to write such articles.”