- Case
Competing interest
…agent was advised that this statement could not be added because the author had not disclosed it. The agent insisted, so the journal contacted the author. The author asked: “Does the final article have these words or something that states the article was in part supported by [X]?” A copy of the agent’s wording and the competing interest statement from the published article were sent to the author, who… - Case
Should we have had author consent for a randomised controlled trial of a peer review?
…Conclusion A notice should be added to the Instructions to Authors, to the effect that from time to time their papers may be used in trials of peer review and that this may slightly delay the processing time. In addition, the letter acknowledging receipt of the article might also contain notice (but with a light touch). In both cases, the authors can be given the opportunity to opt out.… - Case
Retrospective ethical approval?
…ethics committee who would consider giving this retrospectively. A subsequent email from the chairman of the ethics committee to the journal expressed doubt about the value of retrospective approval, pointing out that when a study was reviewed prospectively it was possible to suggest changes to the protocol, which obviously could not be done when it was viewed retrospectively. The chairman added that… - Case
Publication of dead patient’s name at the request of the family
An author requested advice about reporting unusual ocular manifestations of a patient who died from a fatal injury. The author sought the permission of the family to report the case, but they also requested that the patient’s name be added to the report in her memory. The author has proposed to add the following in the acknowledgement section: “The authors are grateful to the family of… - Flowcharts
Changes in authorship: Addition of extra author – before publication
…KB Key points Major changes in response to reviewer comments, e.g. adding new data might justify the inclusion of a new author. More flowcharts on authorship changes - Case
New claim to authorship of published paper
…figures and diagrams are clearly the same. The authors (A–D) of the published journal paper do not appear to be contesting that this document was the source of the text although they claim ownership of the data and ideas.] When challenged, author A says that author X was a poor researcher and was away from the country for considerable periods of time when he should have been doing the work. He… - News
All Elsevier journals become COPE members
…& Technology journals published by Elsevier, have been added to the list of COPE members. "Our editors face an increasing number of cases of plagiarism and unethical publishing behaviour. As publishing ethics is a major aspect of the peer-review process, we're delighted to announce the partnership with COPE which can act as a sounding board for all our editors seeking for an external… - Case
Identifying patient information published in a figure
…the patient’s name. It was agreed that an erratum would not be issued so as not to draw attention to the matter. Both the journal office and publisher have since instituted new procedures in reviewing figures to detect any patient information. Additionally, new text has been added to the author instructions: “Patient’s identity must be removed in all figures (ie, x-rays, MRIs, charts,… - Case
Comments linked to retracted papers
…valid. Alternatively, if the commentary criticises relevant things that helped lead to the retraction, an editorial note could be added rather than a retraction. Conversely, if the linked article had other still valid and significant content, and the retracted article was only referred to in passing, then a correction or expression of concern/editorial note might be sufficient. If the… FORUM DISCUSSION TOPIC: comments please
…3 February. Please do leave any comments below, whether or not you are planning on joining the meeting Comments are reviewed and, on approval, added below. …- Case
Submission of a paper by a reviewer
An editor sent out a paper to three reviewers. One of them, who gave the paper a favourable review, enclosed a research letter on the same topic, with, in his view, a better study design. He told the editor that the author of the paper had encouraged him to submit it during a meeting they both attended. He added that he thought its inclusion would make a good complementary pair of papers. The… - Case
A case of duplicate publication?
A paper was accepted and published in journal A which dealt with a cohort of patients with an unusual respiratory pathogen. A similar paper had been published in a US journal B a few months before. It dealt with more or less the same patients (a few more had been added) and provided some extra secondary outcome data but with the same conclusions. The editor of journal A considered this… - Case
Can two DOIs be assigned to the same manuscript?
…publication, two DOIs are required. The final published version should have been improved by the peer review process and so there can be two DOIs for the original preprint and the published version of record. A note should be added to the preprint version to state that the article has been published. Also, the author should acknowledge the previous version in the new manuscript as a reference or… - Forum discussion topics
Ethical considerations around watchlists
…watchlists. It will offer a space to think about issues such as: The benefits and potential risks associated with watchlists What criteria should be used if watchlists are to be employed? What mitigations should be adopted, including the need for appeals processes and limitations policies, legal guidance, and transparency? The potential consequences of being added to… - Flowcharts
How to recognise potential authorship problems
The infographic highlights warning signs of inappropriate authorship which could indicate an incomplete author list or an author being added who does not fulfil the authorship criteria used. The guidance describes ghost, guest, and gift authorship and best practice to minimise authorship problems. - Case
Editor as author of a paper
A subject editor, who oversaw a manuscript, was invited by the authors to become a co-author after the first review round. After inviting the subject editor to become an author (and adding his name to the author list), the revised version of the paper was submitted to the journal. The authors expected that a different subject editor would handle the paper in the next review round. - Case
Request for addition of new authors
…documents. It also states that the journal adheres to the ICMJE guidelines on authorship. Questions for COPE Council Is it ethical for an author to request adding new authors at the proofreading stage of a paper? The journal received a letter that listed the contributions of the four authors, and another letter with the signatures of all four authors with the newly… - Case
Removing a retracted article from a third party site
…there was a breach of copyright. The journal should check their instructions to authors, and consider adding a statement to the journal terms and conditions about acting on behalf of authors in cases of breach of copyright. Similar cases could be prevented in the future if the journal asks authors for written proof of consent to publish case reports. The journal might also consider adding to… - Case
“Inadvertent” duplicate publication
…3 Additional data had been added to the paper for one journal which had been omitted for the short report in the other journal.… - Case
The disappearing authors
…a competing interest in the published paper. The correspondent claims that the single author insisted that all the other researchers sign an agreement transferring all intellectual property rights to him before they could be included as authors on the second paper. The correspondent added that the author had already been investigated by his university for ethical issues related to his research and was also…