An article was submitted simultaneously to our journal and another journal (who is a member of COPE) on the same date. Both journals received letters saying that the article had not been submitted to another journal. When they received a favourable response from the other journal, and the article was published, we were informed by the authors that they wished to withdraw the paper from our journal. The authors claim that this was a result of a misunderstanding and poor communication between the authors.
I believe this is a poor excuse and I am not sure that I believe the authors. What do the committee think would be a proper reaction?
The advice from committee was to write to the author’s institution, reporting the behaviour of the authors. The committee agreed with the editor that it is most likely that the authors mislead the editors on this occasion as they must have signed two letters on the same day stating that the article had not been submitted to another journal.
The editor wrote to the authors but received a very unsatisfactory reply. The editor reported back to the editorial board. The editor has decided not to accept any submissions from these authors for the next two years.