Complaints and appeals

Journals should have a clearly described process for handling complaints against the journal, its staff, editorial board or publisher

• Cases

  • Stolen article
  • Consequence for dual submission
  • Authorship issues from disbanded consortium

  View all Complaints and appeals cases

• Guidelines

  • Journals’ Best Practices for Ensuring Consent for Publishing Medical Case Reports: guidance from COPE
  • Text recycling guidelines for editors
  • Sharing of Information Among Editors-in-Chief Regarding Possible Misconduct

• Flowcharts

  • What to do if you suspect an ethical problem
  • What to do if you suspect a reviewer has appropriated an author’s idea or data
  • Turkish: all flowcharts

  View all Complaints and appeals flowcharts

• Discussion documents

  • Addressing ethics complaints from complainants who submit multiple issues. March 2015
  • COPE Forum 10 March 2015: Coming back from disgrace
  • COPE Forum 4 December 2013: How should a journal deal with persistent complainers?

  View all Complaints and appeals discussion documents

• Seminars and webinars

  • Can you spot a fake? The trends of fake peer reviews - Alison McCook, Retraction Watch
  • Who's reviewing the reviewers? - Kristen Overstreet, Origin Editorial, LLC
  • Peer review manipulation. New challenges and new solutions - Elizabeth Moylan on behalf of Jigisha Patel, Associate Editorial Director, Springer Nature

  View all Complaints and appeals seminars and webinars

• Events

  • COPE Forum November
  • Publication ethics: fraud and misconduct