- Forum discussion topics
COPE Forum 4 March 2014: Issues related to papers submitted to “discussion” journals
…Discussion section of the journal Within 2–8 weeks, the paper is up online with a DOI, ready for the open peer review process Two referees are invited to post their reviews online Anyone else can comment on the paper whilst it is going through review A decision is made on the paper based on the review comments, with the normal “major,” “minor,” “accept” and “reject”… - Case
Sharing by a reviewer on social media
…has made with its reviewers. As the right of confidentiality lies with the reviewer, if the reviewer wants to reveal the information, then it is reasonable to consider granting that request. However, many journals require permission from the author after their paper is published if the reviewer is going to disclose information, and this is considered to be a good practice to follow.… - Case
Author contacts editor-in-chief using personal phone number
We have received in the past several bribe attempts from authors from an Asian country trying to publish articles in our journal, which have always arrived by email. However, the editor-in-chief of our journal recently received a WhatsApp message on his personal phone number from an author of that same Asian country. The same message was also sent by email to the official email address of the j… - Case
Rescind a decision post-acceptance prior to publication
…would be worth reviewing the journal’s policy on accepted manuscripts to determine whether it suggests anything about further actions that may be required. Will the authors be obliged to take the article down from anywhere else they may have deposited the accepted version, for example? Can they legitimately say the article has been accepted by the journal or not while the re-review is going on?… - Case
“I was acknowledged but I should be an author”
…a different focus for the analysis/paper that they did not go on to take up. I have not been able to broker an agreement between the two parties and I am not able to square their two separate accounts of what has happened over time, including claims that some emails pasted into Word documents and forwarded to me had been altered. As such, this leaves me unable to confidently either reject or accept… - Case
Low risk study with no ethics committee approval
…should err on the side of caution as the study involves human subjects, and the advice was to go back to the authors and ask them to obtain ethics approval for the study. If retrospective approval is obtained, the Forum advised a note on the paper saying that retrospective approval was obtained, in the interests of full transparency. A poll of the (8AM) audience revealed that the majority were in… - Event
COPE Forum: September 2023
…href="http://publicationethics.org/resources/forum-discussion-topics/peer-review-models">welcome your comments to add to the discussion. 3. New cases 23-13 How to handle offers of promotion of authorship for sale 23-14 Concerns over the withdrawal of a complaint … - News
Peer Review Resources: Peer Review Week 2019
…a manuscript flowchart laying out the steps in the decision process that you might go through to decide whether or not you should accept the request. How to spot potential manipulation of the peer review process infographic shows the features or patterns of activity… - Case
Duplicate publication
…When writing to the authors, the editor does not need to go into great detail, just point out that it has been discovered that this particular study has been published in full or part by another journal, and that consequently a notice of redundant publication will be published in the journal.… - Case
Ethics approval for audit 3
The paper has been accepted and publication will be going ahead. The authors of the paper are willing to tell the editor the names and addresses of the centres involved with the research, but the editor has declined so that there is no risk of giving away their identity inadvertently. However, the authors have agreed to tell the journal in the future if asked.… - Case
Dual publication
The authors formally retracted the paper. Therefore, the paper was not re-instated. The reason given by the authors was that they did not want to go to the expense of providing an English translation of their original paper. At this stage my inclination is to do nothing further.… - Case
Reprimanded author plagiarizes again
A reviewer, R1, brought to our attention several suspected cases of plagiarism in paper A1, submitted by authors A. The main concerns were:— large parts of paper A1 resembled paper B submitted by a different group of authors B, with one of the most major changes being a change in the observation day;— large parts of a section were taken from paper C by author C, including an… - Case
Wrong article abstract published: corrigendum or retraction and republication?
An author published an article in journal A. At the proofreading stage they were asked by the publisher to reduce the number of words in the abstract. After publication, the author indicated that they had inadvertently included the wrong abstract in the proofreading correction step, supplying one which belonged to another article they had authored. The article is now published with the wrong ab… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: September 2020
…Trust in peer review September sees the sixth Peer Review Week taking place (21 - 25 September), which has now become something of an established fixture in the research community calendar. The theme for this year is ‘trust’; a focus which resonates strongly with the core values and goals of COPE, going hand in hand with ethical reliability and responsible leadership. COPE’s… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: December 2021
…href="https://publicationethics.org/news/diversifying-editorial-boards">diversify our editorial boards and how to go about it. COPE hosted several online events focused on DEI in 2021. In May, COPE hosted a webinar on diversity, equity, and inclusion. This webinar deals with the impact of discriminatory practices in our industry and outlines best practices around identity and… - Case
Pedigree descriptions: genotyping results for family members
…still alive, some deceased. We felt that the paper fell under the journal’s privacy policy and that we would need to know before going further that all living individuals described have seen a copy of the paper and consented to publication. The journal has a consent form for this purpose but we do not ask to see the patient’s signatures (instead just requiring the authors to obtain consent, file the… - Case
Author alleges discrimination by institutional report
The Forum noted this is a complex case and it is difficult to determine what is going on without the full participation of all of the parties involved. The Forum agreed that the journal cannot adjudicate the allegations of racism. An independent body to review the issues and advise the author on next steps is needed, and it seems that this is happening at the NIH Office of Research… FORUM DISCUSSION TOPIC: comments please
…in Qualitative Research on Internet Communities. BMJ, 323 (7321), 1103-1105.Hoeyer, K., Dahlager, L. and Lynoe, N. (2005). Conflicting Notion of Research Ethics: The Mutually Challenging Traditions of Social Scientists and Medical Researchers. Social Science & Medicine, 61, 1741-1749.Katz, J. (2006) Ethical Escape Routes for Underground Ethnographers. American Ethnologist, 33 (4),…- Case
Inadequate assurance of human research ethics for a questionnaire
A questionnaire was distributed to knowledge workers in an organisation to investigate the following hypotheses: — H1.There is a positive and significant relationship between ethics and organizational performance.— H2. There is a positive and significant relationship between ethics and intellectual capital.— H3. There is a positive and significant relationship between intelle… - Forum discussion topics
COPE Forum: 13 November 2017: Self-Citation: where's the line?
A recent post on Scholarly Kitchen [1] raised some interesting points about the ethics surrounding citation, and specifically self-citation. Previously, COPE has discussed related issues surrounding self-citation by journals and editors [2] and citation of preprints [3]. During this forum, we broadened the discussion…