Salami slicing tactics

{{for|the political meaning of the term|Salami slicing tactics (politics)}}

Salami slicing tactics, also known as salami slicing, salami tactics, the salami-slice strategy, or salami attacks,{{cite web|last1=Slantchev|first1=Branislav|title=Deterrence and Compellence|url=http://slantchev.ucsd.edu/courses/ps12/08-deterrence-and-compellence.pdf|website=ucsd.edu|publisher=University of California at San Diego|access-date=January 18, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180209125507/http://slantchev.ucsd.edu/courses/ps12/08-deterrence-and-compellence.pdf|archive-date=February 9, 2018|url-status=live}} is the practice of using a series of many small actions to produce a much larger action or result that would be difficult or unlawful to perform all at once.

Salami tactics are used extensively in geopolitics and war games as a method of achieving goals gradually without provoking significant escalation.{{cite journal |url=https://tnsr.org/2021/11/salami-tactics-faits-accomplis-and-international-expansion-in-the-shadow-of-major-war/ |journal=Texas National Security Review |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=33–54 |title=Salami Tactics: Faits Accomplis and International Expansion in the Shadow of Major War |date=9 November 2021 |access-date=16 April 2024 |archive-date=8 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240308234709/https://tnsr.org/2021/11/salami-tactics-faits-accomplis-and-international-expansion-in-the-shadow-of-major-war/ |url-status=live }}

In finance, the term "salami attack" is used to describe schemes by which large sums are fraudulently accumulated by repeated transfers of imperceptibly small sums of money.{{Cite book |last=Ince |first=Darrel |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191744150.001.0001/acref-9780191744150-e-2812 |title=Dictionary of the Internet |publisher=Oxford University Press |chapter=Salami attack |date=19 September 2013 |isbn=978-0-19-174415-0 |access-date=14 September 2022 |archive-date=14 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220914230216/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191744150.001.0001/acref-9780191744150-e-2812 |url-status=live }}

Financial schemes

Computerized banking systems make it possible to repeatedly divert tiny amounts of money, typically due to rounding off, to a beneficiary's account. This general concept is used in popular automatic-savings apps.{{Cite web |last=Cherkaev |first=Xenia |date=March 29, 2019 |title=High-Frequency Gleaning and Usufruct Freedom |url=https://culanth.org/fieldsights/high-frequency-gleaning-and-usufruct-freedom |website=Cultural Anthropology |access-date=September 12, 2022 |archive-date=June 13, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190613213346/https://culanth.org/fieldsights/high-frequency-gleaning-and-usufruct-freedom |url-status=live }} It has also been said to be behind fraudulent schemes, whereby bank transactions calculated to the nearest smallest unit of currency leave unaccounted-for fractions of a unit, for fraudsters to divert into other amounts.{{Cite web |url=https://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/sec/2002/01467137.html |title=Salami fraud |last=Kabay |first=M. E. |work=Network World |date=24 July 2002 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050618081604/https://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/sec/2002/01467137.html |archive-date=18 June 2005 |url-status=dead}} Snopes in 2001 dismissed a popular account of such an embezzlement scheme as a legend.{{Cite web |title=The Salami Embezzlement Technique |last=Mikkelson |first=David |website=Snopes |date=22 February 2001 |access-date=15 February 2022 |url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-salami-technique/ |archive-date=7 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207220507/https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-salami-technique/ |url-status=live }}

In Los Angeles, in October 1998, district attorneys charged four men with fraud for allegedly installing computer chips in gasoline pumps that cheated consumers by slightly overstating the amounts pumped. The fraud was noticed by consumers who found that they had been charged for volumes of gasoline greater than their cars' gas tank capacities.{{cite web |url=https://www.mekabay.com/nwss/0197_salami_fraud.pdf |title=Salami Fraud |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111171522/http://www.mekabay.com/nwss/116p--salami_fraud.pdf|archive-date=2020-11-11|first=M. E. |last=Kabay |work=Network World Security Strategies |date=June 24, 2002}}

In 2008, a man was arrested for fraudulently creating 58,000 accounts which he used to collect money through verification deposits from online brokerage firms, a few cents at a time.{{cite news|url=http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/201252/hacker-takes-50000-a-few-cents-at-a-time.html|title=Hacker takes $50,000 a few cents at a time|date=2008-05-28|magazine=PC Pro|access-date=2021-08-12|archive-date=2009-06-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090603092945/http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/201252/hacker-takes-50000-a-few-cents-at-a-time.html|url-status=live}}

In 1996, a fare box serviceman in Edmonton, Canada, was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for stealing coins from the city's transit agency fare boxes. Over 13 years, he stole 37 tonnes of coins, with a face value of nearly {{CAD|2.4}}{{Spaces}}million, using a magnet to lift the coins (made primarily of steel or nickel at the time) out of the fare boxes one at a time.{{cite news |last1=Henton |first1=Darcy |url=https://www.pressreader.com/canada/edmonton-journal/20101227/283025461071328 |title=LRT thief stole nearly $2.4 million, one coin at a time |access-date=27 August 2019 |work=Edmonton Journal |date=27 Dec 2010 |archive-date=27 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190827022134/https://www.pressreader.com/canada/edmonton-journal/20101227/283025461071328 |url-status=live }}

In Buffalo, New York, a fare box serviceman stole more than US$200,000 in quarters from the local transit agency over an eight-year period stretching from 2003 to 2011, and was sentenced to thirty months in prison.{{cite news |author=|title=Convicted parking meter thief amassed $210,000 in stolen cash – all of it in quarters |url=https://nationalpost.com/news/convicted-parking-meter-thief-amassed-210000-in-stolen-cash-all-of-it-in-quarters |access-date=27 August 2019 |date=August 17, 2013|work=National Post |agency=Associated Press |publisher=Postmedia Network }}

Politics

The first use of salami slicing in politics - and the original Hungarian term ({{langx|hu|szalámitaktika}}) - is commonly attributed to Hungarian politician Mátyás Rákosi, who described the actions of the Hungarian Communist Party in its acquisition of power in the Hungarian Soviet Republic.Bullock, Alan, edited by Alan Bullock and Oliver Stallybrass [https://books.google.com/books?id=lWVmAAAAMAAJ The Harper dictionary of modern thought] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170419201422/https://books.google.com/books?id=lWVmAAAAMAAJ |date=2017-04-19 }}, Harper & Row, 1977.Time Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,857130,00.html "Hungary: Salami Tactics"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201074943/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,857130,00.html |date=2008-12-01 }} Time Magazine (April 14, 1952). Retrieved March 15, 2011

= China's salami slice strategy =

The European Parliamentary Research Service has accused China of using the salami slice strategy to gradually increase its presence in the South China Sea.{{Cite web|url=https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2021/689338/EPRS_ATA(2021)689338_EN.pdf|title=China tightens its grip over the South China Sea|access-date=2021-10-07|archive-date=2022-12-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221215100211/https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2021/689338/EPRS_ATA(2021)689338_EN.pdf|url-status=live}}

Salami slicing in scientific publishing

Scientists are often evaluated by a number of papers published and similar criteria. In this context, salami slicing refers to "fragmenting single coherent bodies of research into as many publications as possible".{{cite journal | doi=10.1038/nmat1305 | title=The cost of salami slicing | journal=Nature Materials | year=2005 | volume=4 | issue=1 | page=1 | bibcode=2005NatMa...4....1. | s2cid=195292075 | doi-access=free }} If the fragment is too small it may be too hard to publish, so this includes forming minimal publishable items. It can be harder to collect, digest, understand and evaluate the research when scattered in a number of sources. It also leads to repetitive descriptions of context, bibliography lists and so on. Regarding that it is costly to scientific dissemination process, it is often considered a bad practice{{Cite web |last=Academy |first=Enago |date=2015-11-16 |title=Salami Slicing in Research Publications |url=https://www.enago.com/academy/salami-slicing-in-research-publications/ |access-date=2023-10-06 |website=Enago Academy |language=en-US |archive-date=2023-12-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231206021351/https://www.enago.com/academy/salami-slicing-in-research-publications/ |url-status=live }} or even unethical.{{Cite web |title=Avoiding plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and other questionable writing practices: A guide to ethical writing |url=https://ori.hhs.gov/education/products/roig_st_johns/Salami%20slicing.html |access-date=2023-10-06 |website=ori.hhs.gov |archive-date=2023-08-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230813132152/https://ori.hhs.gov/education/products/roig_st_johns/Salami%20slicing.html |url-status=live }} Some authors managed to divide research to extreme proportions.{{Cite web |last=Abrahams |first=Marc |date=2018-03-03 |title=Scientific Salami Slicing: 33 Papers from 1 Study |url=https://improbable.com/2018/03/03/scientific-salami-slicing-33-papers-from-1-study/ |access-date=2023-10-06 |website=improbable.com |language=en-US}} Salami slicing "can result in a distortion of the literature by leading unsuspecting readers to believe that data presented in each salami slice (i.e., journal article) is derived from a different subject sample".{{Cite web |title=Factsheet: Salami Slicing |url=https://www.elsevier.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/653888/Salami-Slicing-factsheet-March-2019.pdf |publisher=Elsevier |access-date=2022-09-03 |archive-date=2023-08-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230813132142/https://www.elsevier.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/653888/Salami-Slicing-factsheet-March-2019.pdf |url-status=live }}

Salami slicing is considered a type of scientific misconduct.{{Cite journal |last=Smolčić |first=Vesna Šupak |date=2013-10-15 |title=Salami publication: definitions and examples |journal=Biochemia Medica |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=237–241 |doi=10.11613/BM.2013.030 |issn=1330-0962 |pmc=3900084 |pmid=24266293}}{{Cite journal |last1=Köstenbach |first1=Tamara |last2=Oransky |first2=Ivan |date=2024-01-01 |title=Salami slicing and other kinds of scientific misconduct: A faux pas for the author, a disaster for science: An interview by Tamara Köstenbach with Ivan Oransky in October 2022 for the research project "Summa cum fraude – Wissenschaftliches Fehlverhalten und der Versuch einer Gegenoffensive" |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/iwp-2023-2041/html?lang=en |journal=Information – Wissenschaft & Praxis |language=de |volume=75 |issue=1 |pages=1–6 |doi=10.1515/iwp-2023-2041 |issn=1619-4292}}{{Cite journal |last1=Subedi |first1=Krishna |last2=Subedi |first2=Nuwadatta |date=2023-07-03 |title=Misconduct in research: The troubling practice of salami slicing |url=https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/JGMCN/article/view/56137 |journal=Journal of Gandaki Medical College-Nepal |language=en |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=1–5 |doi=10.3126/jgmcn.v16i1.56137 |issn=2070-4259|doi-access=free }}

Cultural references

=Film=

In the 2016 film Arrival, Agent Halpern mentions a Hungarian word meaning to eliminate your enemies one by one. It is thought that this alludes to szalámitaktika.{{Cite web|url=https://dailynewshungary.com/hungarian-expression-mentioned-arrival-sci-fi-movie-year/|title=A Hungarian expression is mentioned in Arrival, the sci-fi movie of the year|last=Béni|first=Alexandra|date=20 November 2016|website=Daily News Hungary|access-date=10 June 2018|archive-date=12 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612145538/https://dailynewshungary.com/hungarian-expression-mentioned-arrival-sci-fi-movie-year/|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543164/trivia|title=Arrival - Trivia|website=IMDb|access-date=10 June 2018|archive-date=8 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180408122203/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543164/trivia|url-status=live}}

Salami slicing has played a key role in the plots of several films, including Hackers, Superman III, and Office Space.

=Television=

In a 1972 episode of the TV series M*A*S*H, Radar attempts to ship an entire Jeep home from Korea one piece at a time. Hawkeye commented that his mailman "would have a retroactive hernia" if he found out.{{cite web |work=M*A*S*H |title=Season 1 Ep 12 |url=http://www.tv.com/M%2AA%2AS%2AH/Dear+Dad/episode/43211/summary.html |access-date=2021-08-12 |archive-date=2010-01-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100126052626/http://www.tv.com/M*A*S*H/Dear+Dad/episode/43211/summary.html |url-status=dead }}

In a 1986 episode of Yes Prime Minister "The Grand Design", an advisor walks through how salami tactics work and would prevent the prime minister from using nuclear weapons. {{Cite news |last=Mounk |first=Yascha |date=2019-01-14 |title=Trump Slices the Salami |url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/01/salami-tactics-trump-norms-democracy.html |access-date=2025-02-12 |work=Slate |language=en-US |issn=1091-2339}}Yes, Prime Minister, Series 1, Episode 1.

=Music=

Johnny Cash's "One Piece at a Time" has a similar plot to the aforementioned M*A*S*H episode, but with a Cadillac made up of parts spanning model years 1949 through 1973.{{cite web | title = One Step at a Time | url = http://www.dieseltechmag.com/2014/07/one-step-at-a-time | access-date = 2021-08-12 | archive-date = 2015-09-23 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150923214618/http://www.dieseltechmag.com/2014/07/one-step-at-a-time | url-status = live }}