- Case
Can a published journal article be submitted to conferences?
An article is submitted to a journal and accepted for future publication. The authors receive the acceptance letter and the script is waiting for the final publication process (within 4-6 months). During this time the authors ask the journal if they can present the full text of the article at a conference (which is going to be held before the publication by the journal). They also… - Case
Attempted plagiarism of a published report
_ This is a serious case which warrants persistence. _ The editor should go ahead and contact the head of the authors’ institution but needed to notify the author of that. _ The editor should wait to hear back from the institution before contemplating further action. _ If the institution’s response were inadequate, publishing details of the episode in the journal may be appropriate. _ The… - Case
Is this previous publication?
A manuscript was submitted to our journal and, on running a routine CrossCheck report, we found that it contained a 68% match (over 5000 words) to a report from a funded project by the authors that had recently been published online. Because the similarity match was so high, we rejected the manuscript. The author is now contesting the rejection, arguing that the funded project had demand… - Case
Is retraction justified because of an author dispute over permission to use data?
Author X recently published a paper in Journal Y and has asked for the paper to be retracted. The reason given is that part of the data presented in the paper was published without the permission of a colleague, who is not listed as an author of the paper (and probably does not qualify for full authorship). This colleague is now seeking to publish the data in another journal and it is implied t… - News
J-STAGE Seminar, Japan
Trevor Lane, COPE Council Member, represented COPE at the Second J-STAGE Seminar in Tokyo, Japan, on 21 October 2019, at… - Case
Failing to get consent from an ethics committee
COPE agreed, on the proviso that the data collection and analysis did not go through the fraudster’s hands. The author of the fraudulent data has now been struck off the medical register because of the fraud and forgery. The editor is sure that the fraudster did not collect the data. Several members of COPE said that they would not publish the paper. The editor should be advised to get further… - Case
An author plagiarising the work of the reviewer?
…not sure what standpoint the university will take, particularly if there is any allegation of misconduct at a scientific level which can be supported by hard evidence. At the moment, the editor is inclined to go ahead with publication and call the reviewer’s bluff. However, this might be expensive in litigation.… - Case
Undeclared conflicts of interest and potential author dispute over signed letter for publication
…a mistake. Unfortunately neither the paper nor the electronic version of the new letter included the conflict of interest statement. It clearly should have done, not least because it seems that one of the authors of the current letter received funding from the manufacturers of the drug. The intention is to go ahead and gather conflict of interest statements and publish them in both the paper and the… - Case
Sloppiness or deception?
_ The authors should have come back to the editorial team about the problem. _ Such a change warranted at least an erratum in the journal and the editor should go back to the authors and ask for an explanation. _ The editor felt that the authors should publicly apologise for their actions but felt that these probably did not constitute a serious enough breach to retract the paper. _ The editor… - Case
Submitted paper already published elsewhere
Authors A submitted paper A to our journal in April 2012. One of the reviewers pointed out that a very similar paper, paper B, had already been published in another journal based in the authors' home country and covering a different field, in August 2012. Indeed, the title is almost the same, except for a few words switched around. We asked the authors to comment on this and were told th… - News
Post-publication discussions and corrections focus
…="https://publicationethics.org/news/research-data-institutions-are-key-management-and-post-publication-concerns-0">Research data: Institutions are key to management and post-publication concerns and A research integrity issue: Who are you going to call? Plus the monthly events and news roundup.… - Case
Retract, correct, or both?
The advice from the Forum was that there has been serious misconduct and so the paper should be retracted, even though only the corresponding author was involved in the misconduct. Although the data are not in question, most believed that the paper should be retracted. If the investigation is going to take a long time, then the editor should publish a notice of concern. Going forward, the… - Case
Extensive publication errors. Should we 're-publish'?
…correct the article, and have the corrected version appear in the electronic version. Our publisher said that it was impossible to change the electronic version (?!). Since that time, we have found a new publisher, in part because of the quality control problems we experienced with our original publisher. Now we need to publish an erratum for the excerpt, which will go on for a number of pages.… - Case
A case with no independent institution to investigate
…asked the editor if the institution had any associated regulatory or professional body which oversees it who could be approached? There is guidance on the COPE website in the form of a flowchart on what to do if you have ethical concerns about a published paper and there is no institution. The advice is to go to a higher regulatory body or, if not, to a medical regulatory body. In the UK, the medical… - Case
When to conclude correspondence from reader about errors in a published article
The Forum questioned the decision by the journal to invite Dr A to write a formal letter to the editor. It may have been more useful for the editor to make it clear to Dr A that any letter to the editor would go through the normal peer review process. If concerns are raised by a reader, the usual approach would be to contact the authors regarding these concerns and to determine whether… - Case
Concerns over research by an author in numerous, separate publications
…mentioned they have had discussions with the other editor of the journal and administrative staff at the publishing house. The editor noted that “ My personal view was that we should go ahead and ask the people who made the allegations to give in confidence their names so that we felt that there was a legitimacy to proceed with the inquiry that was clearly needed by virtue of the allegation”. However, the… - Case
Alleged plagiarism
Journal A published a review paper. About a year later, the author of a paper published in 1997 in Journal B wrote to say that he had come across the paper in Journal A during a literature search. He pointed out that parts of this paper were virtually identical with his paper in Journal B. Although the author of the article in Journal A had made one reference to his article, this was only to on… - Case
Multiple failure to declare a relevant conflict of interest
During peer review of a manuscript submitted to journal Y, one of the referees indicated a belief that at least one of the authors had not declared a relevant conflict of interest (CoI). The article indicated that the authors had no relevant CoIs. The referee provided a URL to a press release that supported the allegation. It appears that one of the authors is the discoverer of a series of comp… - Case
No control group, arbitrary dosage, undiagnosed condition
There committee questioned where the institute was based. It was pointed out that in some countries, this type of procedure is standard practice. It was also pointed out that in the past, there is no response from the institution, and often no response. Also it was thought that perhaps journals had a role in publishing such a paper to illustrate what is going no in other countries. The… - Case
Would the loss of a clinical licence in one country impact on the ability to do clinical work in another?
The associate editor of journal X identified author Y on a submission paper as someone who had lost their license to practice due to malpractice. As part of the settlement, author Y had agreed to refrain from providing services to patients. Author Y now resides on a different continent, and the study presented in the submission was apparently carried out in in this continent. There is no mentio…