Frequently asked questions from the Facilitation and Integrity Subcommittee.
Facilitation and Integrity process
- What types of concerns does the Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee review?
- I submitted an issue of concern to the Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee. What happens next?
- What happens if the Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee agrees with my concerns?
COPE membership
- I have concerns about a publication at a journal that is not a COPE member, but the journal's publisher is a member. Will COPE review the matter?
- My issue of concern relates to a society owned journal. Is it in scope for the Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee?
- I am not sure if the journal is a COPE member but the journal says on the website that they follow COPE guidelines and resources. Can COPE review the case?
Editorial decisions or delays
- I am experiencing delays with my submission to a journal. Can COPE help?
- The journal has rejected my submission unfairly. Can COPE look into this?
- The journal has unfairly retracted/is planning to retract my publication. Can COPE look into this?
- I disagree with the editor’s requests for my manuscript and the editor is not responding. Can COPE get the editor to address my queries?
- A publication at a COPE member journal did not cite my work and the editor is not taking action to remediate this. Can you help?
Legal matters
- I have an intellectual property claim over content in a publication. Can COPE review the matter?
- I disagree with decisions the publisher is taking regarding the journal’s scope, presentation or direction. Can COPE help?
Facilitation and Integrity process
What types of concerns does the Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee review?
The Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee handles a wide range of publication ethics concerns brought to the attention of COPE. Concerns may be related to any of the areas covered under the COPE Core Practices, resembling the variety of topics covered in case discussions at COPE Forums. However, the Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee cannot review concerns where:
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the journal involved is not a COPE member,
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the concern is under active follow-up by the journal or publisher,
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the matter is the subject of ongoing legal or institutional processes,
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the concern relates to an individual editorial decision (eg, a rejection decision by an editor),
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the concern relates to a member university or research institute.
I submitted an issue of concern to the Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee. What happens next?
The Facilitation and Integrity Officer will confirm receipt of your submission and review the information submitted. Your concern will be reviewed initially by the Facilitation and Integrity Officer who will follow the process outlined in the flowchart "Concerns about members raised for review by COPE" (PDF), as described below.
- The Facilitation and Integrity Officer will complete an initial triage to establish whether the issue of concern falls within the scope of the Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee. If the matter is beyond the scope of the Facilitation and Integrity framework, the Facilitation and Integrity Officer will communicate this to you.
- If the matter falls within scope, the Facilitation and Integrity Officer will ask a member of the Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee to review the information and advise on next steps. This generally involves contact with the journal to request information on the process that they followed to deal with the concerns.
- Depending on the issue, a second subcommittee member, the subcommittee Chair or other members of the COPE team may be involved in the review of the issue.
- The Facilitation and Integrity Officer will copy you in on correspondence with the journal and will be in touch with relevant updates.
- Note that the review of individual issues can take several months, depending on the steps necessary to complete COPE’s review.
When the subcommittee has completed its review, the Facilitation and Integrity Officer will communicate this to you and provide a summary report.
What happens if the Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee agrees with my concerns?
If the Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee has concerns about the journal’s process, they will make recommendations to the journal on the steps needed to align with expectations in accordance with COPE’s Core Practices. If the subcommittee considers that the journal does not respond adequately to the recommendations, the case will be referred to the COPE Trustees, who will review whether further steps are needed based on the COPE sanctions process.
COPE membership
I have concerns about a publication at a journal that is not a COPE member, but the journal's publisher is a member. Will COPE review the matter?
Publishers can choose to sign up all of their journals for COPE membership or only some of the journals in their portfolio. For a case to be reviewed within the Facilitation and Integrity framework, the journal must be a COPE member, independent of the publisher's membership status. If the publisher is a COPE member and the journal is not, COPE may raise the matter to the attention of the publisher so that they are aware, but the subcommittee cannot review the matter under the Facilitation and Integrity framework.
My issue of concern relates to a society owned journal. Is it in scope for the Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee?
If the publisher and the journal are COPE members, the matter is within the remit of the Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee on the basis of the journal’s and the publisher’s membership. According to the Facilitation and Integrity framework, the review will focus on the journal's and the publisher’s process. Steps taken as part of the editorial process are within the remit of the Facilitation and Integrity framework. However, any processes and actions by the society that do not relate to the editorial process or editorial follow-up are beyond the scope of the subcommittee’s review.
I am not sure if the journal is a COPE member but the journal says on the website that they follow COPE guidelines and resources. Can COPE review the case?
COPE can only complete a review based on the Facilitation and Integrity framework if the concerns involve a COPE member journal. You can check if the journal is a COPE member by searching the COPE members directory, or contact COPE at [email protected] with any other queries.
COPE resources are available under a CC BY-NC-ND license, and thus the resources may be used by journals and publishers regardless of whether they are COPE members. A reference to COPE materials or COPE standards on the journal’s web pages does not, by itself, imply COPE membership. Therefore, it is recommended that you check the journal’s membership status to establish whether the matter is within the scope of the Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee.
Editorial decisions or delays
I am experiencing delays with my submission to a journal. Can COPE help?
Editorial workflows at journals vary greatly. COPE cannot set standards for manuscript handling turnaround times. If you have concerns about delays, consider pursuing contacts with the editor or with a representative of the publisher who can help check on the status of your submission and provide an update.
The journal has rejected my submission unfairly. Can COPE look into this?
The focus of the Facilitation and Integrity framework is to review the procedures followed by the journal to handle concerns raised to their attention. COPE cannot comment on individual editorial decisions. Therefore, the Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee does not review cases where the concern focuses on a disagreement around a decision for rejection or regarding content. If you have concerns about a rejection, log an appeal with the journal or consider pursuing the matter via the publisher’s complaints procedures.
Based on COPE’s Core Practices, journals are expected to have documented processes for handling appeals on editorial decisions. If your concern relates to the process involved in the handling of your appeal, or the lack of an appeal process at the journal, then it does fall within the scope of the Facilitation and Integrity framework.
The journal has unfairly retracted, or is planning to retract my publication. Can COPE look into this?
The COPE Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee can review issues related to authors’ concerns about retractions. COPE’s review will focus on the process the journal followed to review the concerns about the publication and to inform the decision to retract, and consider whether the process was aligned with COPE guidelines, such as the COPE Retraction guidelines.
The journal has rejected my manuscript and I received poor comments from the reviewers. Can COPE advise?
Journals use different approaches to handle the content and tone of reviewer comments. Making an assessment about the quality and accuracy of a reviewer's comments requires an understanding of the full context of the manuscript as well as subject matter expertise. That falls under the scope of editorial decision making and is beyond the remit of the Facilitation and Integrity framework. If you have concerns about a review, you should bring them to the attention of the editor or publisher of the journal.
I disagree with the editor’s requests for my manuscript and the editor is not responding. Can COPE get the editor to address my queries?
As noted above in relation to reviewer’s comments, making assessments about specific editorial requests requires an understanding of the full context of the manuscript and the journal requirements, as well as subject matter expertise. This falls under editorial decision making. COPE cannot oversee whether and how individual editors address correspondence about submissions to their journal. If you are experiencing difficulties getting a response from the editor, you should contact the journal’s editorial office or the publisher for assistance.
A publication at a COPE member journal did not cite my work and the editor is not taking action to remediate this. Can you help?
Making a determination about what studies merit citation in individual articles requires subject matter expertise and falls within the remit of editorial decision making. The Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee cannot review concerns of this nature.
Legal matters
I have an intellectual property claim over content in a publication. Can COPE review the matter?
COPE cannot review cases that are the subject of active legal procedures and cannot provide legal advice. Resolving concerns about intellectual property requires a legal determination. Cases of this nature are beyond COPE’s remit. COPE recommends that you pursue any concerns about intellectual property via appropriate legal channels, or consider consulting with the relevant department at your institution.
I disagree with decisions the publisher is taking regarding the journal’s scope, presentation or direction. Can COPE help?
The Facilitation and Integrity process focuses on a review of the processes the journal and publisher took to follow-up on publication ethics concerns raised about publications in the journal. Disagreements over scope, presentation or direction of a journal relate to the relationship between the editors and the publisher, and not the integrity of individual publications. Therefore, such matters are not within the scope for the Facilitation and Integrity framework.
If you have general concerns about the business practices or activities of a COPE member journal or publisher, you can bring them to the attention of the Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee who will decide if they should be reviewed by the COPE Membership subcommittee.
More information and submit a concern
The Facilitation and Integrity Subcommittee page explains how to submit your concern.
Last updated: 3 April 2021