- Case
Mislabelling/duplicate images
…subscribers as they will have received a copy of the incorrect version. I am talking to our online hosts about how we can provide a link to the corrected version of the poster because, although I feel strongly that the original should remain online as it is, a correct version should be available. I will ask author X to cover all costs associated with the redesign, printing and mailing of the… - Case
Inappropriate authorship on students paper
…contributed significantly in the various steps of the research starting from topic selection, literature review, introduction, methodology, questionnaire, analysis, discussion and final review. I am further submitting that there is no conflict among us on any matter regarding the order of authorship.” The student also told me unofficially that they were coerced into signing this statement. The… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: February 2021
…on this to follow. On 10 February, we delivered an online authorship cases workshop. This workshop will be repeated for different time zones on 24 February at 17.00-18.30pm (AWST)/9.00-10.30am (GMT). The topic of the COPE Forum on 23 March is book… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: July 2021
…companies have simply shifted away from centralised offices. And yet, COPE’s work continues. I am pleased to announce that this year’s COPE Seminar will take place virtually from September 27 to October 1. The theme is “Together shaping the future of publication ethics”. Timely topics such as paper mills, data sharing, diversity,… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: September 2021
…href="https://osf.io/xp58v/">seeking feedback on these draft recommendations until the end of October. And finally, I would like to welcome Jason Hu back to Council. We are excited to have him rejoining COPE and I am looking forward to introducing more new Council Members in the next Digest. COPE is growing and we continue to welcome a broad diversity… - Case
Possible breach of confidentiality by a reviewer
…taken any further. I am bringing the case to have some opinion on how others would have handled the situation. Bearing in mind that the authors did not the reviewer to be professionally affected, the actions we took were to: · remove the reviewer from this submission FORUM DISCUSSION TOPIC: comments please
…499-506.Kitchin, H. (2007). Research Ethics and the Internet. (Fernwood Press: Nova Scotia).Stanton, J. and Rogelberg, S. (2001). Using Internet/Intranet Web Pages to Collect Organizational Research Data. Organizational Research Methods, 4 (3), 200-217. This will be discussed at the start of the next COPE Forum on Tuesday 9 December 2014 at 9am (GMT). Please do leave any comments below,…- Case
Self plagiarism
…paper was a critique and that he has published before on some of the themes, drawing attention to relevant references. The conclusion was “I am of the strong opinion that the author has not committed a breach of the code for the responsible conduct of research.” The issue of direct replication was not addressed in this response. Is there anything else the journal should do? … - News
Letter from the COPE Vice-Chair: May 2020
I am delighted to have this opportunity to introduce myself to the broad readership of the Digest as the new Chair-elect of COPE, a position I will hold for a year before I become Chair of COPE. COPE is entering a critical phase in its life. The organisation has expanded rapidly, so we need to focus on our strategic goals set out last year. This includes better communication with our members,… - News
Vacancies on COPE Council 2021
…="mailto:[email protected]?subject=Vacancies%20on%20COPE%20Council&body=Dear%20administrator%0AI%20confirm%20that%20I%20am%20a%20member%20of%20COPE%2C%20and%20have%20been%20for%20at%20least%20one%20year%3A%0AName%20of%20journal%3A%0AName%20of%20publisher%3A%0A%0APlease%20send%20me%20details%20of%20how%20to%20apply%20for%20a%20position%20on%20COPE%20Council">COPE Administrator for more details on what is expected from Council Members,… - Case
Inadvertent discovery of salami submission
The journal submitting this case to COPE sent a paper [paper 1] to a reviewer who wrote this in the review: “…That apart, this manuscript seems to be another report of the already published **** trial, looking at the data from a slightly different angle. I am not convinced, however, that the data is worthy of so many submissions.” And, in a separate email to… - 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
Nuisance author
…receive rude replies and he forwards on their emails which have again been tampered with. In fact I wonder whether the email he is sending out as mine is perhaps an edited version of a response from someone else as the English is not the same style as his. While I can continue to ignore this person and his submissions (although this is messing with our journal statistics!), I am very concerned… - Case
Request to withdraw as an author of an accepted but unpublished paper
…PD. I am certainly not comfortable in moving forward with this publication. Yet, without knowing more details and without hearing PD's side of the issue, it would seem unfair to PD to withdraw our decision to publish the paper. And, anticipating what PD might say ("I did everything correctly"), I find it hard to imagine how we can adjudicate the issue.… - 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… - Case
Unusually frequent submission of articles by a single author
…letters. In the remaining one he is a co-author. The articles are on very diverse subjects. This set us thinking that, apart from his clinical work and studies, how he had time to conduct research, analyse the results and write the articles. The journal first wrote to Mr X for the necessary justification. He responded promptly, “I am one of the best researchers of my country and have… - Case
Possible overlapping publications/data
…should be noted that the authors retained the copyright to their article published in journal B. I am not sure about journal C. Most recently, N sent another email to all three journals questioning the housing conditions of the animals used in the study and whether the statement indicating that the authors had received approval from their ethics committee of experimentation on animals is… - News
Guest article: Self-plagiarism in philosophy
…-sexually-assaulted-journal-retracts-paper-duplication/" target="_blank"> retractions. I am hopeful that the situation is improving. The increase in published corrections in the last few years is good sign. - Case
License for using a published scale
…requesting. Thinking that this might be a scam, the case was presented to the dean of the faculty where the scale developer was based. The response from the dean was that ''I am saddened to learn about what has occurred. Our institution does not hold this license and does not support the actions the scale developer is taking''. The scale was published in 2008 and its development was funded with public… COPE webinar: Understanding text recycling
…="http://publicationethics.org/resources/seminars-and-webinars/european-seminar-2019-text-recycling-research-project">they presented at COPE's European Seminar in 2019. “I've been ‘iThenticating’ all revised papers for several years now, and am continually frustrated by self-plagiarism… You’d think that researcher/authors with MDs and PhDs would be bright enough to know how to reword.” Managing editor of a medical journal