- Case
Sharing by a reviewer on social media
A journal operated double blind peer-review, so the reviewers do not know the identity of the authors, and vice versa. However, the anonymity of the authors is not guaranteed, as the reviewers may discover the identity of the authors (because of the area of research, references, writing style, etc). But rarely can the authors identify the reviewers. The journal received a request from… - Case
Author contacts editor-in-chief using personal phone number
…publisher switchboard numbers; this is more difficult for academic editors who have a more public-facing profile. It is advisable to keep summaries of all conversations with organisations who have published personal information, and follow these up in writing so that there is a record of actions taken. This can also help to mitigate any flaws which have been exposed in processes either at the… - Case
Dispute over submitted comment and the right to be forgotten
Some time after publishing a paper, a journal received a comment highlighting serious issues with the methods reported, and claiming that the conclusions could not be trusted. The comment was 13 pages long and rather technical in nature, so it was peer reviewed. The journal contacted the authors to respond to the comment but they replied that they wished instead to completely… - News
Letter from the COPE co-Chairs: February 2019
Hello, to a spectacular seminar and to our first look at COPE’s AHSS research This month let’s have some hellos and goodbyes. Our hellos are to COPE’s growing emphasis in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. So hello, and thank you, to all the good people who are… - Case
Image manipulation case
…there was no problem and reported this to authors and erratum whistleblowers. The erratum whistleblowers disagreed and pointed out that the data were supposedly from different animals treated differently so that they could not come from the same tissue block. This was true and the journal had overlooked this during the investigation. The journal wrote to the authors asking them to retract as… - Event
COPE Forum: 4 December 2013
The COPE Forum will be held virtually via webinar, on Wednesday 4 December 2013 (11am–1pm GMT). The invitation to join the webinar is below. We can accommodate up to 100 attendees, so please register quickly if you wish to join in the discussion. The agenda and materials are available - News
COPE Forum agenda and materials: 4 March 2014 meeting
The next COPE Forum meeting is being held on Tuesday 4 March 2014, 3–5pm (GMT). The COPE Forum will be held virtually via webinar. Download the agenda and materials here (PDF, 695kb). The invitation to join the webinar is below. We can accommodate up to 100 attendees, so please register quickly if you wish… ‘Ask COPE’
…question. You will be the only member on the call so your query can be answered in confidence. If your question proves more complicated, you may be asked to submit it to Council via one of our other channels (eg, a Forum, or for it to be discussed among the full Council via email). The next Ask COPE will be held on Wednesday 14 October at 3pm (British Summer Time). Please contact Linda…- Case
The disgraced author
…referring to these events? - If so, what should this footnote say? - Should the editorial be rejected on ethical grounds?… - Case
Are copyrighted conference audiotapes considered "prior publication"?
Copyright laws are there to protect publishers and they cover only the presentation of something and not the underlying research or data. In the case of audiotapes, the organisation only owns the audio rights not the paper rights, so the editor should check the copyright that has previously been assigned. It is also possible that the audiotapes are behind a paywall for members only, so the… FORUM DISCUSSION TOPIC: How should a journal deal with persistent complainers?
Every so often a journal may get not one, but a series of complaints from the same source. These complaints may be directed at an author, an editor, or the journal in general. If these complaints turn out to be well founded, obviously there is a serious problem with the publication. However, we are aware of cases where a complainant continuously comes up with cases that turn out to be…- Case
Duplicate publication in a foreign language
… A ban should not be imposed without an investigation. The journal does not have a contract with the author so is not in a position to investigate the background evidence of the duplicate publication. There is no precedent for an “appropriate” length of a ban. But 10 years is excessive. The difficulty with bans is that they are often imposed without due process… - Case
Online trial of a new diagnostic tool
…website, and its associated websites, is provided as “a service to the Internet community, and does not constitute medical diagnosis or advice.“ It also states: “You grant us a non-exclusive worldwide royalty-free license to use or exploit in any manner, sell or transfer all data and information provided by you to us so long as such data and information is not identifiable to you.” - Does such… - Case
Misuse of post-publication literature evaluation service
This is a case of self selection. The evaluation service does not state in its guidelines that an evaluator cannot select papers from his or her own journal, so there is a case for tightening up its written instructions to prevent a recurrence. However, it was agreed that this behaviour is acceptable if the evaluator declares a conflict of interest. As long as the evaluation is published… - Case
An investigation into results that were “almost too good to be true”
A general medical journal received an RCT from a seldom-published, single-author, in an eastern European country. The results were striking, with an effect size that surpassed that of established medications for this condition, so the manuscript was sent for peer review. One reviewer commented that the results were “so highly statistically significant it is almost too good to be… - Case
Dual publication
…version of the original paper so that we could assess whether this was a case of dual publication. In the meantime, we removed the online version. Following this, the authors withdrew the paper. The question now is, should we pursue this further by reporting the authors to the regulators in their country for an apparent attempt at dual publication and, if so, to whom should we report?… - Case
Wrong article abstract published: corrigendum or retraction and republication?
…made, and it did not involve misconduct/fraud or affect the validity of the actual findings. This appears to be a simple mix-up, although it shows the need for careful version comparison during production and proofreading. In the case of e-first publication, there is a window of opportunity to make corrections, so if the journal can, they might replace the abstract in the HTML and PDF… - Case
Manuscript submitted based on retracted paper
…href="https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines" target="_blank">Retraction Guidelines state: “An author may republish some of the work if not all of the content was found to be unreliable. In order to do so transparently, authors should notify the editors of the new journal of the prior retraction and it is likely appropriate to cite the retraction, indicating why the work was flawed and what has been corrected in the new article.… - Webform
Registration for the 2023 COPE seminar, Publication Integrity Week
…a waiting list for the session. If you are unable to attend, please let us know by replying to the registration email, so that we can allocate your place to someone else. Alternatively, contact us at [email protected]