- Case
How to deal with obvious but disclosed conflict of interest
We are dealing with a paper which contains an obvious but disclosed conflict of interest. The paper has two authors who are company employees (one is the CEO). The study does not directly involve their product (a medical device) but does directly involve the assessment of the broader medical service which it supports. The results of their study are favourable toward the company. All company aff… Resources and further reading
This page contains links to COPE meeting reports and selected articles or news items on publication ethics which have been published elsewhere and may be of interest. COPE NOTICES eLearning relaunched (21 August 2013)- Case
Using industry knowledge to evaluate an ethics case
A journal owned by publisher A recently posted an article critical of publisher B. Both publishers A and B are COPE members. Publisher B has already responded with several claims about the author’s methodology. Publisher A would normally defer to the journal’s editors. However, because the content of the article relates to the publishing industry, publisher A has particular insights into the to… - News
Peer review resources
…src="/files/u7140/screenshot_2021-09-16_at_21.16.21.png" style="width:100%" /> To narrow your search by the type of guidance you want, filter by ‘resource type’. COPE produces a variety of resource types: Guidelines COPE Guidelines are formal COPE policy and are intended to advise editors and publishers on expected publication ethics practices. Discussion documents… - News
Upcoming CrossRef webinars
…Date: Thursday, March 14, 2013Time: 8:00 am (San Francisco), 11:00 am (New York), 3:00 pm (London)Moderator: Rachael Lammey Registration Date: Tuesday, May 21, 2013Time:… - Case
Retrospective correction: how far back do we go?
In 1990 a case report was published in which it was alleged that the use of a particular endotracheal tube had led to tracheal damage, requiring the child to have a tracheostomy and a tracheal reconstruction. This paper was from a specialist surgical unit, and a letter was subsequently received from the paediatricians who had cared for the baby at the referring hospital before and after the tra… - Case
Suspected unattributed text in a published article
An article was published in July. In October, a corrigendum was published to correct large sections of unattributed text. Two weeks later the journal and publisher received a complaint from a reader who accused the author of the published article of using text from an unpublished collaborative manuscript on which the published author was participating. This participation on the collaborative wo… - Case
Preprint plagiarism
Author group A deposited a preprint onto a preprint server and simultaneously submitted the manuscript to journal A. Peer review in journal A took some considerable time, but the paper (paper A) was eventually published. During the long peer review of paper A, author group A noticed that another set of authors, author group B, had published paper B in journal B. While paper B was submitted seve… - Case
Author anonymity at the final proofreading stages
A newly relaunched open access, peer reviewed journal operates a double blind peer-review system. At all stages of the review, until the decision to accept has been taken, neither the author nor the reviewer can identify the other. The journal always uses at least two reviewers, who are also unaware of the identity of each other. After the author has been told that the article is accepte… - Case
Duplicate submission and request for withdrawal
A paper was submitted to journal A and received a ‘revision’ decision. At some point following this decision, the authors emailed the journal to request withdrawal, citing inconsistencies in their data and subsequent conclusions. A search of the literature showed that the same paper (with the same authors) was published in journal B the day before the withdrawal request. Clearly, the authors wa… - Case
Suspicious responses to authorship change requests
A journal received a request for multiple changes to the authorship list after the manuscript was accepted. Originally, there were five co-authors. After acceptance, the journal received the following requests from author A, the corresponding author and co-first author: remove one of the co-authors (author D), add a new co-author (author E), reorder the list of authors, and change the designate… - News
Case discussion: Editor manipulation of impact factor
…="https://www.councilscienceeditors.org/resource-library/editorial-policies/white-paper-on-publication-ethics/2-1-editor-roles-and-responsibilities/#215" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">https://www.councilscienceeditors.org/resource-library/editorial-policies/white-paper-on-publication-ethics/2-1-editor-roles-and-responsibilities/#215). Case Discussion This case is categorised under COPE’s Core Practice of - Forum discussion topics
What does peer review mean in the arts, humanities and social sciences?
…citation frequency. As noted by Mudditt and Wulf (2016) and Denbo (2020) in articles… - News
In the news: January 2018 Digest
…href="https://librisbloggen.kb.se/2017/12/13/the-nordic-list/" target="_blank">https://librisbloggen.kb.se/2017/12/13/the-nordic-list/ And some reflections on 2017, and thoughts about 2018 from Kent Andersonhttps://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2017/12/21/wakeup-call-looking-back-2017-factors-affecting-2018/ - News
Complaints and appeals
…upcoming COPE Forum and more. Read April 2018 Digest: Complaints and Appeals… - News
Post-publication discussions and corrections focus
…--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Read November Digest: Post-Publication Discussions and Corrections. This issue of Digest announces new resources What to do if you Suspect Image Manipulation in a Published… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: November 2019
…publication, publication on vulnerable populations, ethical conduct of research using animals, ethical conduct of research using human subjects, handling confidential data and ethical business/marketing practices”. This makes this core practice an overarching topic for all issues in publication ethics. The case we discuss in this issue is just one example of ethical oversight. It is case 17-21… - Webform
COPE integrity workshop 2021
…Facilitation and Integrity at COPE: prevention, education and best practices in publication ethics 21 April 2021, online workshop, COPE members only 16:00-17:30 British Summer Time (UTC + 1) Find out what time this is in your country - Case
Ethical approval and fabrication of results
A group of authors, based in private practice, submitted three manuscripts to Journal A and one to Journal B. All the manuscripts described the application and effectiveness of a spinal manipulation technique. The first manuscript in Journal A was a case series of 21 patients. After publication, a member of the journal’s editorial board pointed out several flaws in the study design,… - Case
Self plagiarism
On initial assessment of a submitted review paper with a single author, the editor checked some of the references to the author’s own work that were cited in the paper. The author mentioned in the covering letter that he had written extensively on some of the specific themes of the paper, as the references made clear, but he claimed that the paper was an original synthesis of the material.…