Identify potential fraudulent activity and use the flowcharts when handling suspected manipulation. Suggested actions are recommended for each type of suspicious activity.
Supplementary guidance addressing concerns about systematic manipulation of the publication process can be used alongside this guidance.
Key points
- Systematic manipulation of the publication process is where an individual or a group of individuals aim to guarantee publication by repeatedly used dishonest or fraudulent practices to:
- prevent or inappropriately influence the independent assessment of a piece of scholarly work by an independent peer;
- inappropriately attribute authorship of a piece of scholarly work;
- publish fabricated or plagiarised research.
- Indicators of systematic manipulation of the publication process are often recognised as suspicious patterns through:
- manuscript submission, such as numerous submissions to one or more journals, unusual author email addresses, submissions by a third party;
- the content and presentation of manuscripts, such as a high level of similarity between manuscripts, suspicious data and figures, substantial revisions, including authorship changes, after editor acceptance;
- the peer review process, such as rapid review times, similarities in the content and format of peer review reports, suspicious email addresses.
- Investigating the identified issue should involve:
- finding out whether it is reviewers or authors at the root of the problem;
- identifying where in the publishing systems this type of manipulation can be flagged;
- sharing pattern information with other publishers and COPE.
- Publishers can prevent future manipulation using technology to flag patterns of behaviour, and train journal editors in identifying types of manipulation.
- Flowcharts offer a step by step process for editors or publishers to use when they are handling suspected manipulation.
- Recommended actions are suggested depending on the type of problem or indication of manipulation.
Related resources
- Addressing concerns about systematic manipulation of the publication process COPE guidance 2023
- Paper mills research report COPE & STM, 2022
- How to recognise potential manipulation of the peer review process COPE infographic
- Publication misconduct and fraud day: Keynote Publication Integrity Week 2023
- Systematic manipulation of the publishing process via paper mills COPE Forum discussion, 2020
- Potential paper mills and what to do about them – a publisher’s perspective article, 2020
- Retraction guidelines COPE guidelines
About this resource
Cite this as
COPE Flowcharts and infographics Systematic manipulation of the publication process — English.
https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.2.23
©2021 Committee on Publication Ethics (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
https://publicationethics.org
Version history
Version 1: 2018
Version 2: 2021
Full page history
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18 January 2024
Version 2 published
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4 January 2022
Revision to title in line with the new All Flowcharts PDF
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11 February 2021
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11 February 2021
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