- Case
Author approval for response to mini-reviews
We publish mini-reviews of important articles from the medical literature. In order to give the authors of reviewed articles a chance to respond to the review, we have now started to contact the corresponding author once a review of their article has been published on our website. If an author responds, we wish to publish their comments underneath the review. Do we need to get formal ver… - Case
A breach of confidentiality?
We ask our contributors to send us short mini-reviews of interesting articles they have come across in their regular reading. Most of our members also act as peer-reviewers and come across interesting articles as part of the peer-review process, before they are published . If they sent us one of those mini-reviews of an article they have peer-reviewed, and we kept the submission on file… - Case
Multiple failure to declare a relevant conflict of interest
During peer review of a manuscript submitted to journal Y, one of the referees indicated a belief that at least one of the authors had not declared a relevant conflict of interest (CoI). The article indicated that the authors had no relevant CoIs. The referee provided a URL to a press release that supported the allegation. It appears that one of the authors is the discoverer of a series of comp… - Case
Sponsorship, ethical approval and consent for study done as part of an expanded access program
We received a paper describing the results of an analysis of pathogen gene sequences from patients who had been given an investigational drug as treatment for their infection. The study had been done in Europe. One reviewer said that the paper did not explain whether the patients had been treated in the context of a trial or not and that no information about study sponsorship, ethical approval… - Case
Researchers give an experimental therapy to patients based on a laboratory study published in our journal
We published a paper in the journal which reported on microarray expression profiling of cell lines from a specific type of cancer (not named here, to preserve anonymity). That paper suggested that a particular compound might affect the function of a protein expressed in the cell lines; this compound could therefore be a possible candidate drug for use in this type of cancer, which might be exp… - Case
Possible case of fraud
A paper was submitted to us describing an RCT carried out in a Far Eastern hospital. Soon after the manuscript had been sent out for review, one of the reviewers sent a letter alerting us to a “possible case of fraud”. The reviewer in question appears to have compared notes with another investigator in his institute, and together they realised that the same group had submitted two… - Case
Attempt at dual publication
In October 2005, our journal commissioned a review on a specific topic from an expert in that field. The commission was accepted, and a submission date set. This was followed up and renegotiated several times over the coming months. A first draft was received in January 2007, and assessed inhouse for feedback to the authors. Some suggestions were made regarding structure and content, and the ma… - Case
An investigation into results that were “almost too good to be true”
A general medical journal received an RCT from a seldom-published, single-author, in an eastern European country. The results were striking, with an effect size that surpassed that of established medications for this condition, so the manuscript was sent for peer review. One reviewer commented that the results were “so highly statistically significant it is almost too good to be tr… - Case
Inadvertent discovery of salami submission
The journal submitting this case to COPE sent a paper [paper 1] to a reviewer who wrote this in the review: “…That apart, this manuscript seems to be another report of the already published **** trial, looking at the data from a slightly different angle. I am not convinced, however, that the data is worthy of so many submissions.” And, in a separate email to the… - Case
Author dispute over internal report
Author A was paid to facilitate a meeting and write a meeting report for internal purposes. He was paid to do this by author C’s company. The report was posted as a PDF on author C’s company website. No authors were listed on the report. Authors B, C and D co-authored an article that has been published in a journal supplement. It later transpired that the main substance of this journal… - Case
The judgement of Solomon: a case of two strikingly similar papers
In February 2007, author A and a colleague submitted a paper (paper A) to our journal, which uses double-blinded peer review. We sent paper A for external review. Four weeks later, group B submitted a paper (paper B). The editorial office sent paper B to external reviewers, one of whom was author A. Both groups of authors are known to us and well regarded within our discipline. The revie… - Case
Is ethics approval required?
The journal received a paper on an imaging technique which reported changes in a normal healthy volunteer. No adverse events were experienced. This study demonstrated the feasibility and safety of the imaging studies in a particular condition. The paper was rejected on methodological and priority grounds but during the review process it was noted that no specific mention was made of ethi… - Case
A survey of doctors’ opinions, with no IRB approval or written consent
A doctor who trained in country A took the licensing examinations in country B because he wished to work in country B. After the examinations, he carried out a survey (with a very poor response rate) of other doctors who had taken the same national licensing examination. The survey asked four major questions: How representative was the examination relative to the scope of your reading?… - Case
Unusual consent process in a vulnerable population
A clinical trial was conducted in a low income country. The trial involved two schools. At the first school (the control school), children would receive a one-off drug treatment for a common infection (such “mass drug administration” is the norm for treating and breaking the transmission cycle of this infection). At the second school, children would receive the same one-off drug treatment plus… - Case
Author trap/fabrication detection
This is how I dealt with an author who submitted a fabricated manuscript to my journal. A junior doctor submitted a paper about the use of a drug in a particular condition. Three expert reviewers were sure that the author did not undertake the claimed study, emphasising that the drug was not available in our country (Middle Eastern country) and it had not been registered for clinical use… - Case
Controversy regarding ownership of a device
A paper was submitted which described the outcomes of a clinical trial evaluating a particular device. The device was claimed to represent a placebo version of an active device intervention. The paper was reviewed fairly critically and one reviewer pointed out that from the reference list it did not seem that the authors had developed this type of placebo device, while the title of their paper… - Case
Non-compliance of author with request for information
In April 2007, an original scientific article was published on line (ahead of print—it is now published in print, September 2007). In July 2007, the editors received the following request from a scientist who read this article: "Since I am interested in this subject and I already work with it, I need to know some technical information from the authors. I have called the group five times and wro… - Case
Signing on behalf of other authors
The editors received a manuscript from a Far Eastern country ready to accept. The senior author (who has spent a lot of time in the West) was in the US when the editors asked for final signatures to be sent. The senior author instructed his team to collect and fax signatures while he was away and this was sent to the editors. When the signatures were examined by the editors, it appeared… - Case
An appropriate response to concerns of research validity
A paper describing a novel technique was submitted. Three out of four external reviewers felt that the results could not be true. The manufacturers of the tool used in the technique provided evidence to support the reviewers’ claims that the results were not feasible. The editor wrote to the authors asking them to explain their results. The authors replied saying that they were unable to… - Case
HIV testing without offering treatment to affected individuals
A team of Western researchers carried out a longitudinal study of pregnant nomadic tribeswomen in Africa between 2002 and 2003. They took blood samples during and after pregnancy to test for a specific disease. Those who tested positive were treated. An attempt was also made to trace contacts, and the women’s status was rechecked after pregnancy to ensure effective treatment. The resear…