- News
Letter from COPE: June 2020
…together support and guidance that has been brought to our attention during the crisis. It’s worth repeating COPE Chair Deborah Poff's statement in our April - Case
Simultaneous publication
About a month after our journal (Journal A) published a paper (Paper X), the journal received emails from readers that Paper X was very similar to a paper (Paper Y) that had just been published by another journal (Journal B). Some of these emails were sent to both journal offices. Paper X was submitted to Journal A a few days before Paper Y was submitted to Journal B and Paper X wa… - Case
Using the name of a scientific society inappropriately
A journal published an article about clinical recommendations for a condition that supposedly was the result of a consensus between two scientific societies of different medical specialties. The article underwent peer review and no problems were identified at that stage. However, about one month after publication the journal was contacted by one of the scientific societies raising concerns that… - Case
Authorship issue related to misleading action of one author
Our journal received a manuscript which was a report of an evaluation and enhancement of an online clinical decision support system (CDS) for a specific population at risk of a disease. The online CDS had been developed by a national agency with a mission to support health promotion and disease prevention activities. Evaluation of the CDS was supported through contracts and sub-contracts. The f… - Case
Disputed change in authorship
A case control study was submitted to a journal. It was subjected to the usual peer review processes. After the required revisions, the article was accepted for publication. After acceptance, the journal received a letter from the corresponding author (author A) with a request to add the name of a new author (author B). The journal declined, stating that it would be unethical. The… New UK Panel for Research Integrity
…area of greatest need first, expanding to others if we can clearly demonstrate the usefulness of such a move. Of the 66 allegations reported, a prima facie case was established after a stage I investigation in 35 cases, and in 19 cases, the allegations were upheld in full. Contact was made with the Department of Health at an early stage. It was clear that they…- News
In the news: October Digest
…disciplines were assessed using machine-assistance techniques to assess for inclusion of information relating to 19 topics on transparency in reporting and research integrity. The results showed that only Conflicts of Interests and Peer Review Type of the 19 were mentioned in over 1/2 of the instructions for authors. Plagiarism was mentioned in 46%. The other 16 topics (Such as data sharing, image… - News
In the news: December Digest
…policies, including the Make Data Count Project provides some practical information as well as arguments for a robust data sharing practice. http://europeanscienceediting.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/ESEAug19_editorial.pdf PLOS is encouraging authors to pre-register their study designs… Outcomes of editors' attempts to investigate research misconduct
…Plagiarism 7 2 2 2 14% Total (%) 79 16 (20) 15 (19) 23 (29) 36 (46) In about one in five cases, the individual was exonerated. But in about 20% of cases,…- News
In the news: May 2021
…target="_blank">piece describes CRediT in more detail including details of the new ORCID implementation. Preprints The demand for rapid circulation of information during the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way research, especially medical research, is being shared, with a massive increase in the use of preprint servers, with their associated advantages and disadvantages. This has highlighted the… Presentations
…style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; "> 2009 What ethical issues do journal editors bring to COPE?- News
Guest article: Research misconduct
…="https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2019/09/reproducibility-and-replicability-in-research">reproducibility and that, ultimately, science is self-correcting. The direct relationship between science, our everyday lives and the slow iterative nature of the scientific process has been illustrated by Covid-19 vaccinations which were developed in record time only because of the - News
COPE in 2023
…first in-person meeting of the Trustees, Council and staff in October 2022 – the first in three years owing to the Covid-19 pandemic – to discuss how COPE should respond to developments in existing publication integrity issues, as well as newer challenges facing the community such as paper mills and - News
Where next in peer review? Part 2: COPE commentary
In Part 1 of this Commentary we outlined some of the problems, solutions, and tools facing peer review. In Part 2 we address perhaps the most lively area of debate on this topic at the moment: the role of artificial intelligence (AI). Artificial intelligence Covid-19 saw… Seminars
…Powerpoint presentation [PDF 552kB] | Watch presentation [14:19] Poster: Violation of publication ethics in manuscripts submitted to the biomedical journals: analysis and perspectives Download [PDF 2740kB] A report on the COPE European Seminar by Mijam Curno (COPE…- News
Case discussion: Suspected plagiarism
…Case 19-04 Suspected plagiarism A single author submitted a paper to a journal. A similarity check revealed 48% similarity with another published paper. The published paper was by different authors—5 in total. The similarities between the papers were in the introduction, methods and discussion… - News
In the news: August
…16.8.19 Research Ethics The University of Central Lancashire joins the University of Cape Town to adopt a code of conduct to stamp out “ethics dumping”, in which international research takes advantage of the lack of awareness or regulation in some poorer countries to conduct work. Examples include high risk medical research studies for which participants have experienced a… - News
Where next in peer review? Part 1: COPE commentary
…we saw some interesting signs that there may be new life in peer review after all. A revolution in peer review? Covid-19 saw a surge in rapid, community-led peer review because of the urgent need to understand more about the virus. Unfortunately, a number of the resulting articles later had to be… - News
In the news: October-November 2021
…consideration includes background information, examples, and recommended workflows for cases that may arise during the review and publication processes, or post-publication. A letter published in Nature, and prompted by the demand for treatments for COVID-19, draws attention to the issues with meta-analyses based on high volumes of recent, often… - News
In the news: July Digest
…="_blank">https://www.hindustantimes.com/education/ugc-move-to-thwart-pay-and-publish-trash-culture/story-AP0BFFrbNuL1mN5WNbgCjI.html Peer review An experiment on peer review conducted by researchers at Harvard Business School, found that almost 50% of reviewers of medical funding applications changed their own ratings…