Report from COPE North American Seminar, August 19, 2015, Baltimore, USA
COPE's 6th North American Seminar was held in collaboration with ISMTE (International Society of Managing and Technical Editors), on Wednesday 19 August 2015, at the Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. The conference had the highest numbers of attendees and was filled to capacity, with a waiting list of individuals who wanted to participate. COPE Council members who assisted in coordinating the meeting included Alison Taylor, Tara Hoke, Geri Pearson, and departing Vice-chair, Charlotte Haug. A big thanks for the additional assistance with the workshop session by COPE member, Catherine Nancarrow, from PLOS.
After an introduction to COPE, three speakers presented on the topic of "Understanding metrics in publishing: use and abuse”: Todd Carpenter, Executive Director of NISO talked about “Let’s all agree on what we’re counting and how: progress on standards for new metrics in scholarship”; Betsy Donohue from Altmetrics spoke on “Altmetrics and Impact”; and David Crotty, Senior Editor at Oxford University Press discussed “Why we need metrics, and what can new metrics offer editors and journals?”.
The day included a luncheon and concluded with a cases workshop as well as a workshop around developing a flow chart “What to do when an author appeals a review decision?”. All workshop groups produced valuable information that will be incorporated into a new flowchart later this year. Many thanks to all!
The presentations from the seminar are available on the COPE website (http://publicationethics.org/resources/seminars)
Betsy Donohue from Altmetrics speaking at the COPE North American Seminar in Baltimore.
Workshop session at the North Amercian Seminar in Baltimore.
COPE at INANE, August 3-5, 2015, Las Vegas, Nevada
The 34th Annual International Academy of Nursing Editors (INANE), a conference for nurses who are involved in editing professional journals, was held in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 3–5. As part of the conference, INANE members, Charon Pierson and Geri Pearson, trustees on COPE Council, presented “Solving ethical issues in the nursing literature” to attendees on August 5. The moderator was Lucy Bradley-Springer. The goal was to locate specific COPE resources when formulating a response to an ethical issue and to describe a process for uncovering, investigating, and resolving ethical issues faced by nurse editors. Several cases were presented as part of this and resulted in lively discussion of ethical issues increasingly faced by nursing editors in their academic and editorial work. At the conclusion of this successful seminar, the group requested that COPE be presented at the 35th INANE meeting, which will be held in London next summer.
Charon Pierson and Geri Pearson presenting at INANE 2015 conference.
Kathleen Simpson, editor-in-chief of MCN: The American Journal of Maternal Child Nursing, presents a case for discussion at INANE.
COPE Strategy Day
COPE Council convened for a 3 day residential meeting, 6-9 September, to discuss - among other ifems - COPE's strategic plan for the next 18 months and beyond. Some exciting plans emerged, which will be communicated to members in more detail over the next few months. Watch this space!
COPE council at the COPE strategy meeting.
COPE Annual General Meeting, 9 September 2015
At our recent Annual General Meeting (AGM), the proposed special resolution was approved by members in attendance and via proxy voting. The numbers were: 35 for, 0 against, and 1 abstention. The special resolution was:
"THAT the Articles of Association contained in the document here: (http://publicationethics.org/files/Amended%20Articles%20of%20Association_17April2015Clean.pdf) and for the purposes of identification marked ‘A’ are approved and adopted as the Articles of Association of the Company in substitution for and to the exclusion of the existing Articles of Association of the Company. "
The AGM also saw new Officers elected. Dr Virginia Babour, in an uncontested election, was elected Chair for a second term; Chris Graf and Geraldine Pearson were elected co-Vice-chairs after a tie in voting; Charon Pierson was uncontested in her election to the role of Secretary; and Christopher Leonard was elected as the Treasurer, also in an uncontested election. We welcome the new Officers to their positions. We give our heartfelt thanks to the outgoing Officers: Dr Charlotte Haug, Professor Margaret Rees and Professor André van Steirteghem. All three have been long standing members of COPE, first as members of the Council and then as Officers. We wish them farewell with huge appreciation and gratitude for all that they have contributed to COPE over the years.
This month has the usual roundup of stories on scientific misconduct and retractions, in addition to features on consent, authorship and the challenges to improve scientific reporting. The case of the month is on revoked parental consent which was discussed at the COPE forum. This is a difficult issue if it occurs after publication as little can be done regarding copies already in circulation. A survey of postgraduate medical trainees found that 90.1% were unaware of authorship criteria. Thus medical schools should provide instruction on the topic. Christie Aschwanden, in the article 'Science isn’t broken', concludes that "The scientific method is the most rigorous path to knowledge, but it’s also messy and tough." Thus teaching on scientific methods, and research and publication ethics, should occur as early as possible in universities and be regularly updated.
Springer, Sage, Hindawi
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) removes journals from its member list due to suspected publisher misconduct
How not to fail a PhD
Honorary authorship in postgraduate medical training
Journal of Threatened Taxa’s policy regarding citation of work published in predatory journals
Research misconduct investigation by University College London finds Professor of Human Genetics David Latchman has ‘no case to answer’
High profile researcher admits fabricating scientific results published in major journals