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I was recently given to review a journal paper that significantly overlaps with a work that we recently submitted to a conference (about half of the contributions are the same).

Any advice on what to do in this case?

(even if I tell the editor now that I'm unable to review the paper, I've already read it).

user104841
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If you already submitted the paper you have some evidence of your own work even without a "published" preprint. Inform the editor of the situation and get advice. You may even be permitted to review it and point to your own paper in the review, but that would be up to the editor.

Parallel independent work is pretty common, especially in popular fields.

One option is to use editors of the two journals (assuming there are two) to act as intermediaries to get the two groups together. I don't think I'd recommend doing it on your own, however.

Buffy
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  • Our submission was to a conference, sorry for not mentioning this. Does this change anything? If we are rejected, would it be OK to submit it again? – user104841 Feb 22 '19 at 22:18
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    If you are confident about the work then you should be fine, but continue to develop a paper trail to show you haven't plagiarized the other work. I don't think that journal vs conference is a deciding factor. – Buffy Feb 22 '19 at 22:19
  • I guess I should also avoid writing a review for their paper. If we are accepted to a conference, should I notify their editor? – user104841 Feb 22 '19 at 22:25
  • Probably best to do that, but give full information. The conference chair may need to make decisions, but also knows about parallel work, I'm sure. It is best if the news comes from you. – Buffy Feb 22 '19 at 23:02