- Case
An attempt to publish data already published elsewhere
…I wrote again asking for an immediate response. Again, I have heard nothing. My inclination is to disqualify the five authors from submitting anything to the journal for a period of 3 years, and to write to their departmental dean informing him of this decision and of the reasons for it. I would also inform the editor of the journal in which the data were published already, because even though… - News
Letter from the COPE co-Chairs: July 2018
…QUT (Queensland University of Technology). The high point for me was our “Transparency 2020” panel discussion, led wonderfully by Tracey Bretag, COPE volunteer and Council Member. In my mind, it’s helpful to think… - News
Diversity in Peer Review: Survey Results
…important than diversity • My employer/publication (N=384)… …has achieved an ideal level of diversity in its peer reviewer pool (37%) …values diverse involvement and opinions in its peer review process (71%) …has policies to respond appropriately to alleged cases of discrimination in its peer review process (43%) …has diversity policies for… - Case
Omitted author
…Professor X provided the picture and clinical data regarding this patient and I should have included him as coauthor. It was my mistake." This explanation was accepted by the editor and a revised version of the manuscript and authorship consent was submitted.(Comment: The journal does not require coauthors of papers to state explicitly what they have done to merit inclusion as a coauthor.)It… COPE webinar: Understanding text recycling
…wondered if I was wasting my time by doing that extra manipulation, but it felt odd to just put the same text in multiple documents. At the same time, we do often have to say the same thing and starting from scratch every time feels like a waste too.” Professor of Economics Text recycling, also known as self-plagiarism, is a common practice in research…- News
Letter from the COPE Chair: November 2020
…tuned for details. Like many of you, my agenda has been filled with virtual meetings. Dan Kulp, COPE Vice-Chair, and I are COPE representatives to a multi-stakeholder consultative process for a project at the University of Illinois, funded by the Sloan Foundation on “Reducing the inadvertent spread of retracted science”. I also participated in a consultation with industry organisations in… - News
In the news: August 2018 Digest
…one group of authors in Science showed that 1/5 respondents were coerced into adding citations and findings were similar in a study of PLOS ONE authors. The specter of citation cartels among participating journals—you scratch my back, I’ll cite your paper. The author of this post suggests that an automated algorithm, similar to what is used by the US Securities and Exchange Commission to detect… - News
Reflections on the COPE North American Seminar 2019
…that have come to the COPE Forum. There were many highlights for me from this day, but here are a few of my Aha moments and insights (see the agenda for the day here). Karin Wulf,… - News
Vacancies on COPE Council
…Annual seminars and workshops are held in a number of locations worldwide and it is hoped that Council Members will participate in at least one of these. "Inspiring, busy and exciting years. It has been a truly unique experience and I am happy to have done my bit." Iria del Río, COPE Council 2016-2019 Key responsibilities COPE is governed by the - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: December 2020
…COVID-19-related papers to guard against poor-quality work." We apologise for the incorrect statement in the original text. ------------ Welcome to our final Digest of 2020, that has affected us all in many different ways. In my April letter, I addressed the COVID-19 situation as we faced it at the… - Case
Possible fabricated data: a conspiracy of silence?
I became involved in this issue after reports from doctors in a developing country that three papers in a systematic review published by my company may have been fabricated. The papers in question had co-authors in two other countries and so I contacted them. One co-author replied that he had concerns, but as none of the studies was conducted in his country, he had no data. He… - Case
Undisclosed conflict of interest
…submitted a COI statement which the journal removed. Subsequently, you falsely asserted that my wife, is a Director and employee of a CMG associated company when she clearly isn’t and has never received any fund from CMG.” We checked the company registration and the spouse is actually listed as company secretary, which is considered an ‘officer’ of a corporation in the country of registration, so… - Case
Concern about reporting of a trial and also its DSMB
…would be credited later by a coauthorship. (b) My personal decision to include three of the four DSMB members in the list of authors was made a significant time after the final database lock. This decision was long after completion of the clinical study and its analysis. It credited three members of the board who made some significant advisory contributions to the present manuscript. Only for… - Case
Problem with figures
…similar. I can assure you that all this study is fully controlled and the reproducibility is excellent. We now have even results with the systemic application of the XXX vector to disseminated tumors. I find it hard to believe that I am going to be under investigation questioning my scientific integrity.” (9) We then enlisted the confidential help of an editor from a different journal who is an… - Case
Suspect author
…delayed pending the analysis, which has now been submitted to journal A for publication! (It concludes that fabrication is almost certain.) Meanwhile, a separate publication scandal has distracted the editors’ attention recently. We did not investigate ethics approval since we felt that should be for the institution to investigate. My main question is what to do with the analysis that has been… - News
Allegations of Misconduct webinar summary, April 2019
…a RIO in Chinese institutions? To my knowledge, there is not a designated person named “RIO” at Chinese institutions, but the institutions may actually have a person designated as the point of contact for allegations of research misconduct. Although sometimes it is difficult to find the correct person, they are often senior people like the Vice President for Research. If there is… - Case
Request for a retraction of a retraction
…corresponding author. He: · Admitted to writing signatures on the submitted manuscript for the two co-authors, about which he said “I do, however, now feel it was a mistake to write their names in my handwriting, even though they had approved the inclusion of their name previously” (that is, six years before the paper was… - Case
Alleged unauthorized use of data and possible dual publication
…editorial office asking whether it was journal policy to publish a reference to a database without any scientific study based on these data (the journal answered yes, citing a previously published database description) and stating “I discovered by examining this database that the senior author has used my data without permission. This applies to hundreds of measurements in country 1 and in the mountains,… - Case
Author of rejected letter blames global bias against his message and undisclosed conflicts of interest
…then went on to contradict himself and, in my view, invalidate his only claim which may have had some merit: “I would like to clarify that [the group] is absolutely not an ‘advocacy/regulatory group’. To take a modern example, it is something like Facebook where authors [...] advertise and publish the kind of publication that I have criticised in details for their flaws. In that case I don’t… - Forum discussion topics
Predatory publishing: next steps and where do we go from here?
…establish this criteria at the protocol stage. My advice would be to check all open access journal of included articles to see if they are in the DOAJ or not (if claiming to be open access); or in COPE’s membership or not. A caveat of this approach is that new journals will not yet be members. Question: Will the tool also take enough consideration for the fact that there are also…