- Case
Possible omission of information essential for conclusions in a research paper
In 2013, our journal published a paper describing an observational study comparing two drugs (A and B) for the management of a chronic disease over a period of 10 years. The conclusion in the paper was that mortality was higher in group A (97 deaths) compared with the other group B (52 deaths) (hazard ratio 1.76, 1.22 to 2.53; P=0.003). This analysis was done after adjustment for a large… - News
International Workshop for Journal Editors, Indonesia
…-publishing">16 Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, the 10 COPE Core Practices, and practical advice on preparing to apply for COPE membership. Other workshop presenters at the event included representatives from Clarivate Analytics, SCOPUS, the… Increasing number of fraudulent papers produced by “paper mills”
…Press release 16 October 2020 Across research publications, publishers are increasingly seeing large scale manipulation of the publication process. “Paper mills” - producing fraudulent papers at scale - is one such manipulation. COPE members, with guest speaker Elisabeth Bik, recently discussed the issues surrounding- Event
COPE Forum: December 2022
…="https://publicationethics.org/case/reviewer-misconduct-and-its-potential-impact-submitted-manuscript">Reviewer misconduct and its potential impact on an submitted manuscript 22-15 Request to remove author from submitted manuscript due to academic misconduct 22-16 - Case
Seeking retrospective ethics approval
I received a submission that had asked a series of questions of visitors to a website about a mental health issue. It was reviewed by a senior colleague and myself. While the science was fine we were both concerned that no mention had been made of any ethics approval. I raised this issue with the authors, especially given that deception was involved. The authors then appear to have sough… - Case
Publication of expression of concern
A university institutional review board (IRB) investigation found that there was extensive data fabrication in connection with a clinical research study. Three articles and one abstract reporting results from this clinical study were published. Our journal published the abstract, which we intend to retract. The three articles have been retracted by the journals that published those articles. - Case
The role of the lead author
An author on a "perspective/consensus" type paper continues to provide new editorial as well as substantial content comments on consecutive versions of a paper, and currently disagrees with the content of the final version of the paper. The other eight authors have approved the final version of the paper prepared and circulated by the lead author. At this stage, the lead author sees no rational… Facilitation and Integrity FAQ
…editor’s requests for my manuscript and the editor is not responding. Can COPE get the editor to address my queries? A publication at a COPE member journal did not cite my work and the editor is not taking action to remediate this. Can you help? Legal matters I have an intellectual property claim over content in a publication.…- Event
COPE Forum: March 2023
…%3ESubmit%20a%20case%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fa%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%0A%3Cp%3EThe%20deadline%20to%20submit%20a%20case%20for%20this%20Forum%26nbsp%3Bis%3A%20Thursday%2024%20November%202022.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%0A%2D%2D%3E--> Forum agenda On Thursday 23 March 2023 the COPE Forum will be held at 15:00-16:30pm (GMT / UTC) 1. Update on COPE activities Update on COPE activities by the Chair. - Case
Plagiarism and possible fraud
The authors of a paper published in another journal wrote to the editor of Journal A, complaining of apparent blatant plagiarism of their work by N et al. , whose paper had been published in the journal earlier in the year. Further investigation revealed that the text of the two papers was almost identical. S et al. had used one drug and N et al. had used a different one of the same class. The… - Case
Author accused of stealing research and publishing under their name
We received a letter from a third party, accusing author A of putting his/her name against an article, published in our journal, when the research itself belongs to author A's student. Our journal is a fully English language publication and the accusing third party and author A are from a non-English speaking country, as is the student (assumedly). The accusing third party forwarded the… - Case
Publication of post-doctoral work
In 2012, Dr X started her post-doctoral training under a fellowship. She worked on the project until 2014, when the fellowship ended. She did all the work herself, and gave two seminars showing her results and progress, with positive feedback. When needed, she consulted with the supervisor or with a senior scientist in the laboratory (who has since resigned). By the time she finished, she had w… - Case
Ethical considerations in publishing conference papers
Journal X has recently received two manuscripts, which were previously published at a conference, with DOIs and publisher information. They contacted the authors with our concerns. Author A's manuscript was taken verbatim from their conference paper, yet they insisted that they own the copyright of the conference paper. They claim that they are free to re-submit the paper to Journal X, b… Seminars
…presentation [13:18] Download presentation [PDF 76.2 kb] 2011 Presentations at the 2011 Asia-Pacific Seminar (Download PDF [46 kb] of the seminar programme) 14 November 2011, …- News
In the news: March Digest
…target="_blank">https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/2/e023983.full Humanities research A report from Humanities Indicators, a project of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, shows that spending on Humanities research in the USA was at a 10-year high in 2017, at just under $500m, a 76.5% increase over 2007 when adjusted for inflation. - Case
Effect of the British Human Tissue Acts on biological monitoring
…Authority for the storage of material from a human body (section 16e), for purposes which include “obtaining scientific or medical information about a living or deceased person which may be relevant to any other person (including a future person)” (Schedule 1). Most of the Act came into force in April 2006. The editor has been told by members of his Editorial Board that this is being deemed to… - Case
Paper B plagiarised paper A: what to do if a journal does not respond?
The author X of a paper published by journal A complained to the editor-in-chief of journal A that his/her paper has been plagiarised by a paper that has been published later by journal B. Moreover, the authors of the paper in journal B allegedly did not respond to letters sent by author X asking for an explanation about the apparent plagiarism. The editor-in-chief of journal A compared… - Case
Enquiry regarding copyright/retractions
A journal received a paper that had previously been retracted from another publisher’s journal as a result of malpractice in the peer review process (a result of reviewer/editor misconduct rather than actions on the part of the authors). Having reviewed various sources of guidance, it would appear that there is some precedent for re-publication of retracted papers (suitably corrected or… - Case
Plagiarism and publication fee
A journal’s editors were informed about a plagiarism case just before the last step in the volume publication process. The publication fee for the paper was already paid by the author and the author completed and signed the publication agreement in which confirmed the paper's originality. The author was informed of the plagiarism issue and also that the paper would be withdrawn from publication… Outcomes of editors' attempts to investigate research misconduct
…Lasted >1 year Redundancy 33 7 3 4 48% Unethical research 16 5 4 7 25% Fraud 13 2 2 4 62% Med negligence 10 0 4 6 70% …