- Event
COPE Forum: December 2023
…papers Plagiarism by a possible predatory journal 4. Updates to previous cases Multiple complainants for a single article Strategic plan
…href="https://publicationethics.org/cope-strategic-report-2020">COPE strategic report 2020 Page history Page last edited: 16 Feb 2021 Page published: 22 July 2020…- Case
Plagiarism and possible fraudulent publication
An article written by eminent doctors on a subject of great public interest, with implications for public health policy, was published in Journal A. They subsequently wrote to Journal A, indicating that an article had been published in Journal B, which heavily plagiarised theirs. The editor of Journal A wrote to the authors of the second paper, but has received no satisfactory replies. The seco… - Case
Transparency of peer review to co-authors
An associate editor of one of our journals has asked whether we can configure our online peer review system to restrict access to reviewer correspondence to corresponding authors. His concern is that some of the review materials (eg, a harsh critique) might be embarrassing for the principal investigator if accessed by a co-author who was a junior investigator or laboratory technician. Similarly… - News
Revised Good Publication Practice guidelines published
The newest revision of the Good Publication Practice” (GPP) guidelines is now freely available (free account registration may be required). The revised guidelines, called GPP 2022, were published on 30 August 2022 in the Annals of Internal Medicine and are the fourth version of GPP, first published in 2003. The GPP… - Case
Online trial of a new diagnostic tool
A paper was submitted that attempted to evaluate a new tool for diagnosing an acute symptom. This symptom is one that could be linked with various medical conditions—some causing little harm and some life threatening. The researchers recruited (and continue to recruit) patients into the study through a website devoted to this symptom. Patients viewing the website are asked if they would like to… - Case
Where should journals escalate serious concerns about an institution or institutional review board?
A publisher received a submission to one of their journals that raised ethical concerns. The concerns were related to potential harm or undue risk for participants who may be vulnerable. The publisher reviewed the ethics approval statement, and the authors had met the journal’s policy requirements by prospectively obtaining ethics approval from their institution before beginning the rese… - Case
Duplicate articles due to DOI reassignment
The editors of Journal C have found that 15 of their recent articles have been assigned slightly different DOIs in the Online First and the final issue versions. This arose from administrative problems with the publisher’s production process and has resulted in duplicated articles in both spaces, and there may be other duplicate articles due to reassigning different DOIs. The editors of… - Case
Allegation of reviewer malpractice
A member of the editorial board of Journal A was approached by an overseas colleague with a strange tale. An epidemiological study had been conducted in the community around an industrial facility, funded by a group of plaintiffs’ lawyers. The study concluded that health effects in the community were related to exposures emanating from the facility. A paper based on the study was submitted to J… - Case
Competing interest
An editorial board member of a journal submitted an unsolicited review article on a drug. The editor said the journal would consider the article, but suspected that the article had been commissioned or even written by a drugs company. S/he stipulated that the author must provide a financial disclosure statement before the article could be accepted. The journal published the review article, whic… - Case
Duplicate submission of a paper
A paper concerning the prevention of coronary disease in primary care was received. This examined the practical consequences of following some recent national recommendations and suggested that the recommendations were unrealistic. A few weeks later another paper from the same authors was submitted, which the editor who first read it thought was probably an inadvertent duplicate submission of t… - Case
Editor as author in own journal
This journal specialises in one form of treatment. It is the only Medline listed journal that is widely accessed in Europe by people who use this form of treatment. No international journals provide a suitable alternative. In the USA, the one journal most similar to this is much less specialised and hardly ever accessed in Europe. The journal editor is a leading researcher in this form… - Discussion documents
How should editors respond to plagiarism? April 2011
…Contents Aims and scope Background Introduction Types of plagiarism 2.1 Extent 2.2 Originality of copied material 2.3 Position / context 2.4 Referencing / attribution 2.5 Intention 2.6 Author seniority 2.7 Language Detecting and responding to plagiarism Screening for plagiarism Defining… Publication and research ethics related to geopolitical issues
…Russian-authored papers and to make their content and resources available both in the Ukraine and in Russia. 10 March 2022 European Commission suspends cooperation with Russia on research and innovation, 7 March 2022 ALPSP statement:- Case
Authors used pseudonyms on a published article
A publisher has recently become aware that an article published in one of their journals two years ago uses pseudonyms instead of the real names of the two authors. Communication with the corresponding author has confirmed the use of pseudonyms. The corresponding author has informed the publisher that the authors used pseudonyms in order to obtain a fair review of the paper (the paper is in an… - Event
COPE Forum: September 2023
…by COPE Members for discussion at the Forum. 4. Updates to previous cases 23-02 Request for a retraction from a pharmaceutical company REGISTER… - News
WCRI 2019: Predatory publishing plenary
…Patwardhan, vice-chair of the University Grants Commission in India, and myself, Matt Hodgkinson, Head of Research Integrity at Hindawi. - News
Guest article: Self-plagiarism in philosophy
…-sexually-assaulted-journal-retracts-paper-duplication/" target="_blank"> retractions. I am hopeful that the situation is improving. The increase in published corrections in the last few years is good sign. - Seminars and webinars
European Seminar 2019: Exploring Publication Ethics Issues in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
…review had been particularly critical. 5) Half of respondents have experienced self-plagiarism, with 22% saying this arose frequently. Again, this was especially widespread in Business, Finance and Economics (65% of editors working in these fields). 6) In the case of fraudulent submissions, these appeared to come up infrequently, though nearly 20% of… - Case
Sanctions for citation cartels?
Multiple journals appear to be affected by a citation cartel between a group of researchers across three universities, via the medium of special issues. All articles within the issues contain a high proportion of citations to the same researchers at the three universities, many as high as 100%. Looking at the pattern of citations to these researchers' work, they have only ever been cited in the…