- Case
Duplicate submission
…journal. The authors claim that this was a result of a misunderstanding and poor communication between the authors. I believe this is a poor excuse and I am not sure that I believe the authors. What do the committee think would be a proper reaction?… - Case
Lost raw data
…trust. I am hoping that you could point me towards some official ruling. The peer review process would not be of any help in such a situation as it is unlikely that reviewers would ask to see the original calculations or even imagine a story of such careless custody of data.… - Webform
COPE peer review workshop, November 2020
…Peer review workshop Thursday 19 November 2020, online workshop 9.00am - 10.30am (GMT) (COPE Members only) REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED AS WORKSHOP IS FULL Following on from the success of our Peer Review Workshop during this year’s Peer Review Week, COPE is re-running… - Case
Declaration of contributorship
An online post-publication literature evaluation service, aiming to highlight the best articles in medicine, received an evaluation of an article whose authors were based at the same institution as the evaluator. The editor asked the contributor if he/she had any involvement in the study and received the following response: “I am based at the university but did not participate in the design of… - Case
Retractions of primary literature papers: how should a review journal react?
…order unless (till) proven otherwise. In fairness, I think that if any corrective measure is to be taken, it amounts to a corrigendum noting that the said references have been retracted. However, I am concerned about the additional workload that investigating the impact of retractions could have if we generally adopt the procedure of publishing corrigenda for every article that they affect. An… - Case
Possible duplicate publication
An article by a Far Eastern group was published in our journal in November 2005. We were later alerted by an interested reader that the same article, slightly changed, was published in an American journal. I contacted the American journal and the article will now be officially retracted from that journal. Part of the explanation could be poor communication between the authors, but I am not… - News
1st COPE South American Seminar – Brazil, Monday 12 November 2012
…"Correcting the literature" Costão do Santinho Resort, Florianópolis, SC, Brazil COPE is pleased to announce its first seminar in South America, to be held on Monday, November 12 (8:30 am to 5 pm), in Brazil. The meeting will take place during the annual meeting of the Brazilian Association of Scientific Editors (ABEC), at the Costão do Santinho Resort, Florianópolis, 300… - Case
A member of an author group listed on a paper denies authorship
…“study group X”, we rejected the submission. The reviewer wrote back claiming that: “I am not an author on the “Name A” paper. The latter is a substudy, which uses the “study group X” database. While we entered some patients into the main trial, in no way do I fulfil authorship criteria given that I never even saw a draft of the paper nor knew it was being submitted.” We published the… - Case
Possible serial misconduct in relation to coauthors and other activities
I am the editor of an international clinical journal and am facing a very unusual problem that does not fit readily into COPE flowcharts. Through a reviewer, I was informed that an author had submitted a paper without the approval of at least one of the other authors. This appeared to be confirmed by two other authors. In response to my bringing this possibility to the first author’s… - Case
Self-plagiarism of review article
…“as an author I have the factual and intellectual responsibility for the content of my papers, and if I want to express the same thoughts and say the same things, I am almost obliged to use the same words, unless I find better ones, and this is exactly what I have done in good faith without plagiarizing anyone… I have been invited for updated reviews, and therefore I have updated what needed to be… - Case
Non-compliance of author with request for information
In April 2007, an original scientific article was published on line (ahead of print—it is now published in print, September 2007). In July 2007, the editors received the following request from a scientist who read this article: "Since I am interested in this subject and I already work with it, I need to know some technical information from the authors. I have called the group five times and… - Case
Failure to ask permission
I am a trainer and author of books on medical writing. It was brought to my attention that a chapter in a German-language book published in Switzerland was based almost entirely on my teaching. The first author is director of a privately funded research institution and the second author a member of staff. The second author attended one of my courses. There is a general statement at the… - Case
Disagreement between a reviewer and an author
…unfavourable, have been cited by this individual to other senior academics and editors of other journals.” The author did not make any response to the accusation of duplicate publication. I wrote back to this author saying that if he has correctly identified the reviewer (which seems likely), then I am disturbed that the reviewer did not declare a conflict of interest. I also asked him to respond to the… - Case
Possible dual publication
As editor of journal A I am handling a manuscript by an author and it is likely to be accepted, although this is not yet decided. As a reviewer for journal B, I have since been asked to review a manuscript by the same author that uses similar material and comes to a similar conclusion, but pushes the presentation of the results a little further. My gut feeling is that there is insufficient… - Case
Image manipulation as a general practice
…rejected such a manuscript, a typical response was: “I am surprised by the question and problem you pointed out in our manuscript. I checked the pictures you mentioned and I agree that they are really identical. But please be reminded that the purpose of these gel pictures was only to show the different types of banding pattern, and the gels of a few specific types were not very clear, so my PhD student… Facilitation and Integrity FAQ
…the matter? My issue of concern relates to a society owned journal. Is it in scope for the Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee? I am not sure if the journal is a COPE member but the journal says on the website that they follow COPE guidelines and resources. Can COPE review the case? Editorial decisions or…- Case
A falling out
…approval (and we do not do this routinely in our department as it is usually the responsibility of the corresponding author). I am very concerned that you have sent off a letter to the journal without the courtesy of letting us see it beforehand. This is most unusual behaviour and can only have a damaging effect. The erratum is curious as these changes should have been made in the original manuscript.”… - Case
Suspected plagiarism
…have been? Should we have gone to the corresponding author’s institution? This was the reason given by the junior author, for interest: I am sorry for my <paper reference>. I might think those sentences is more suitable to express my viewpoint so that those sentences be used directly in his review. However this is bad habit for writing review among few students. I already… - Case
Parallels between unpublished manuscript and a published article from other authors
I am seeking advice on a confidential ‘letter of concern’ from an author (X) of a manuscript submitted before I was appointed editor of the journal but rejected by me on the advice of the associate editor. Author X is concerned with similarities or parallels between his manuscript, rejected in 2008, and a recently published article. I have looked over our file and contacted the… - Case
Concerns over research by an author in numerous, separate publications
…respond to my message, which I am still waiting for. Three have expressed concern about the nature of the email; one of these editors has offered to judge the papers of the suspected author and provide a response, and I am waiting to hear back from them. One of the editors contacted a colleague who lives in the same country as the author and received a general response from their colleague who…