- Case
Authors referring readers to an objectionable version of an article on a preprint site
…should produce one and communicate it to their readership appropriately. This will safeguard them prospectively. Related resources Bourne PE, Polka JK, Vale RD, Kiley R (2017) Ten simple rules to consider regarding preprint submission. PLoS Comput Biol 13(5): e1005473. - Event
COPE webinar: Enhancing partnerships of institutions and journals
This webinar has ended Watch the webinar recording which includes presentations by the speakers and the question and answer session. - News
In the news: August 2018 Digest
…investigation into scientific publishing practices: In the interest of science itself. Everything must be done to ensure that ‘the credibility and the great trust in science do not suffer’. - News
Case discussion: self-plagiarism and suspected salami publishing
…Case Summary Case 18-13 Self-plagiarism and suspected salami publishing Paper A was published in journal A in January 2018 (accepted, June 2017), but the editors then found that a similar paper, paper B, was… - News
Artificial intelligence in the news
…href="https://iblnews.org/chat-gpt-at-capacity-due-to-its-massive-traffic/">registrations are currently suspended because of demand), both have been busy with talk of the 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% …- News
In the news: April 2021
…in 13 different journals, noted significant variation in how journals responded. The authors suggest a template to help support journals and researchers to aid in the "communication, interpretation and investigation of published errors". In order to be certain that any published corrigenda, errata and expressions of concern about a published paper are known to readers, Elsevier is - News
In the news: September 2021
…concerned that this may be just the tip of the iceberg of a new type of fabricated paper. SNOPES, a fact-checking internet resource, has retracted 60 articles written by co-founder and chief executive, David Mikkelson after a BuzzFeed investigation reported that the articles were plagiarised. The… - Case
Undeclared competing interests
A journal published an animal study on the use of drug X for the treatment of clinical condition A. The authors did not declare any competing interests. A few months after publication, a journalist contacted the editors to say that the corresponding author had several patents on drug X, was listed as an inventor of the drug, and that the public charity of which he is the director recently annou… - Case
New claim to authorship of published paper
In October 2011, our journal received a submission from author A with co-authors B, C and D. After review and revision it was published in mid-2012. In April 2013 we received a complaint from author X, saying that the work published in this paper was his work, and that although author A had been his research supervisor at the time the work was done, authors B, C and D had either little or no in… - Case
Misattributed authorship and unauthorized use of data
The director of a research laboratory contacted our journal regarding an article published earlier this year. The director claimed that the documents and data used in the article were collected at his research laboratory and used by author A without his knowledge and permission. At the time, author A was a visiting scholar at the director's laboratory. The director also claimed that auth… - Case
Claim of plagiarism in published article
Author A of a 2008 review article in our journal claims her article was used as the "framework" for a 2013 review article on the same subject in an open access journal by a former student of hers, author B. There was no verbatim overlap but the format (comparison of two common conditions) was indeed similar (differential diagnosis, management, pharmacotherapy, and implications for practice). - Case
Suspected image manipulation involving four journals
Editorial office staff at journal A noticed possible image manipulation in two figures of a new paper submitted by author X. These suspected manipulations involved images of gels which appeared to contain multiple duplicated bands. This prompted editorial staff to look at the submission history of author X to journal A in more detail. It was found that author X had previously submitted t… - News
Post-publication conflicts of interest
…advised the journal to review its requirements for declaring each author’s conflicts of interest, the funder’s exact role(s), and whether the authors had full control of the data. Case 13-05: After being invited to be a co-author at the end of the first round of review, an editor was listed as both author and handling editor… - News
COPE in 2023
…for important conversations to be aired, leading to the creation of publicly available resources. The 1999 Guidelines on Good Publication Practice note in the opening paragraph that “COPE is a voluntary body providing a discussion forum and advice for scientific editors, it aims to find practical ways of dealing with the… - Case
Suspect author
Author A has published approximately 150 original articles since ~1994, with ~100 on one particular topic. Since some of these events were up to 16 years ago, and there are no formal records from then relating to these studies, the only information we have is the memory of the editors of the affected journals in post at the time. According to their accounts, suspicions were aroused over the val… - Guidelines
Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing
…still relevant and appropriate. 12. Editorial team/contact information Journals should provide the full names and affiliations of their editors as well as contact information for the editorial office, including a full mailing address, on the journal’s website. Back to top Business practices 13. Author fees If author fees… Projects Funded
…A report on this project will be published shortly. The abstract is available now (Download pdf 17 kb) (uploaded 13 May 2010).…- Case
Paper submitted for publication without consent or knowledge of co-authors
An article was submitted by corresponding author (CA) on 19 December 2011. After several revisions the article was accepted for publication on 23 March 2012. The article was published online 8 May 2012.At the time of submission, CA was a PhD student at a research centre (X).On 21 November 2012, co-author A (also head of the research group) contacted the publisher and editor-in-chief… Resources and further reading
…Member)http://nursing.utep.edu/resources/publication-ethics-video-series/ Publication Ethics: 16 years of COPEPresentation at 7th International Congress on Peer Review and Biomedical Publication