- Case
Repeated alleged plagiarism in case reports
…asked my specialty editors to be vigilant about this form of intellectual property theft and to do whatever is possible to prevent being a party to it. I will explore whether there is any usable free software or online solution available to deal with this problem easily but in the meantime I have found Google really easy to use. While I have submitted this anonymised, I feel that serial… - Case
Advice regarding a weird type of content and its authorship
…authors (reviewers with useful comments). My questions are: • Should we make all reviewers authors, even if their report is pants? • I suspect not, but can you think of a useful threshold as to when a reviewer has done enough to be an author? • Year on year, we would have to check the “original” reviewers (ie, the first years') are still happy with the revised pathway, right? - Case
Possible breach of reviewer confidentiality
…how and why. Within a few hours, both reviewers replied that they kept the paper confidential and did not share it with anyone else. We take their assertions as valid and true, as we do with so many other statements by authors and reviewers. I informed the authors about the outcome of my investigation. I also suggested that if they still think that a reviewer may have broken confidentiality,… - Case
Withdrawal of accepted manuscript from predatory journal
…email or certified letter in order to communicate that threat effectively. However, she then sent a message to the publisher of the predatory journal: “Immediately remove my article from your website. If you do not do so immediately, I will take legal action”. The publisher responded by asking her for the article title and associated journal. The author provided this information and indicated she… - Case
Author requests for certain experts not to be included in the editorial process
…journal] should make sure that any criticism by editors and reviewers is specific, clearly explained and justifiable. However, if significant errors remain in this regard and if as a result an important debate and patient safety takes a backseat then I will probably need to make a formal complaint to [the journal] against the paper by [editor A] in the interest of patient safety. It is my duty to express… - Case
Should we always follow the decisions of ethics committees?
…given). They replied that they had not given them the information that this could happen and why the investigation was performed. I also doubt that the ethics committee knew the true reason for doing the study. This case resembles many I have seen over the years. The study was approved by the authors’ university ethics committee. My question is whether we, as journal editors, always… - Case
Plagiarism in a case report
I confirmed independently that the case was genuine and wrote an “expression of concern” that will be published in the October issue of my journal. The advice provided by COPE was very helpful in resolving this issue.… - Case
Availability of reagents
…results. The journal requires authors to accept that “By publishing in [the journal], authors agree that any viruses, plasmids and living materials, such as cell lines or bacterial strains, that are newly described [my italics] within the article are available without unnecessary delay and at a reasonable cost to members of the scientific community for non-commercial purposes”. As cell line X was not… - Case
Falsified references
An article was submitted to my journal and was sent for peer review. An editorial board member realised that a number of the references were incorrect: publication dates had been changed to make them more current. The author was contacted by email and telephone who said he/she had a number of students working for him (who were not listed as authors or in the acknowledgment) and they… - Case
Extensive publication errors. Should we 're-publish'?
…Since our intention was to honour a deceased colleague, would it be appropriate to 'republish' the entire excerpt free of error, so it can appear in the form the author originally intended? My board feels that the extent version of the excerpt is an insult to the author and her family (who kindly edited and prepared the excerpt for publication). The excerpt was originally presented as part of the… - News
Letter from the COPE co-Chairs: August 2018
#CitationManipulation Nearly a decade ago, before I became actively involved in COPE, and increased my awareness of publication ethics issues, I was the editor of a small international scholarly nursing journal. Like many nursing journals, it used a double-blind process for manuscript review. As the editor I made the final decision about papers after peer review and editorial board… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: May 2019
…needs of our community. It has been a busy beginning to my term as Chair. There was a Summit in April at the University of Ottawa on predatory publishing. We have also been working on a discussion document on predatory publishing which should be available shortly. A number of members of COPE Council are busy planning for four presentations in June at the 6th… - News
In the news: July & August 2022
…crowdsourced review after posting, use of artificial intelligence strategies and curation platforms. Authorship #pleasedontstealmywork campaign in Denmark headed by PhD candidate highlights structural problems in national research hierarchy. Paper mills US House… - Case
An author thinks that a journal’s decision not to publish is ethically incorrect
…already known to the public through no fault of the author. The author had also added a handwritten addendum, stating s/he accepted the agreement “to the extent that my academic freedom to report findings of scientific and public health importance is not compromised.” On peer review the science of the paper was judged to be sound. The journal’s legal advisor had some concerns about publication; legal… - Case
Nuisance author
…threatening. We are now ignoring him, but he is sending out these emails to the community which are untrue. He has edited my email responses and then forwarded them on to people. He attached a copy of an email from me which said his paper was unsuitable for publication in our journal. However, he had removed that text and typed in "If all Chinese authors are as impolite and narrow-minded as you, any… - Case
Publishing complications and patient safety
…As an editor and a doctor, I would like to publish some of these cases to improve patient safety and healthcare in general. However, the authors are often afraid of legal repercussions and patients are often not willing to provide consent after bad experiences. My solution would be to publish a series of these case reports as one publication with all authors in alphabetic order. I would leave out… - Forum discussion topics
Editing of reviewer comments
…that process be documented to the reviewers? Should we have a statement in the instructions for reviewers, documenting the policy of the journal? We do a lot of reviewer training. We always reference the COPE guidelines. Also, reviewers are not decision makers; they are simply advisors to the editor. Many of the authors submitting manuscripts to my journal are new authors so I like… - News
Letter from COPE Vice-Chair: February 2020
This is my first opportunity to open the Digest, so welcome everyone. In this issue, we are releasing the final version of the COPE Strategy for 2020-2023. This document is the end product of months of hard work by your volunteers (COPE Council and Trustee Board) to develop a focus for the next three years.… - Case
Parental consent for participants
…not reviewed by an ethical board. However, the project proposal contained a detailed description of the procedure, including the ethical aspects. The project proposal was approved by a university, and evaluated, approved and funded by a grant agency. My concern is about the age of the participants. Does the Forum have a recommendation regarding the requirements for parental approval for… - Case
Sufficient consent?
…indicated fully after my name in the documentation send to your journal. So it's now a question of whether COPE considers his responses sufficient. …