- Case
Possible plagiarism
…author of paper 2 for an explanation. Although I did not consider the author’s explanation satisfactory, I felt uncertain whether this was a case of “minor” or “major” plagiarism based on the fact that the paragraphs copied verbatim from paper 1 constituted only a small fraction of paper 2 and because this was a review paper and not original data. I then contacted COPE and the chair of COPE… - CaseOn-going
Preprint plagiarism
…guard author group B against accusations of plagiarism, and certainly did not assign full credit to their original discoveries. Author group A feels like author group B took advantage of some key results in their preprint to accelerate some major points in paper B. Unfortunately, author group A did not raise this with journal B. Journal B has only found out about this through word of mouth.… - Case
Alleged plagiarism
The author apologised, and said that no deliberate attempt to plagiarise had been made, but the editor of Journal A contacted the author’s institution. A careful review was undertaken, concluding in the end that there was no intentional plagiarism. The editor, with consent of all parties, sent this to the author and the complainant, explaining that the journal did not intend to take any… - Case
Attempt at multiple plagiarism
The committee felt that the reported plagiarism was a serious matter. The editors should contact the authors to request an explanation. Additionally, the editor should contact the authors’ institutions and regulatory body to request an investigation into the matter. The editor should let the authors know of his/her intention to do so. The editor of journal B should let the original authors… - Case
Possible plagiarism case
One of the referees of our journal has brought to our attention a potential case of plagiarism. The referee feels that the a manuscript submitted to our journal plagiarises an article published in another journal. The authors are from an institute in a far-eastern country. We would be grateful if COPE could provide an opinion on this issue, as well as advice on what would be the… - CaseCase Closed
The ethics of self-experimentation
…no possibility of coercion.— The subject was assessed by a psychiatrist and found to be competent to evaluate the risks and benefits and to accept full responsibility for the conduct of the experiment.— The Declaration of Helsinki does not comment on self-experimentation; it is concerned with research in patients and healthy volunteers. The requirement for ethics approval therefore does… - CaseOn-going
Reprimanded author plagiarizes again
A reviewer, R1, brought to our attention several suspected cases of plagiarism in paper A1, submitted by authors A. The main concerns were:— large parts of paper A1 resembled paper B submitted by a different group of authors B, with one of the most major changes being a change in the observation day;— large parts of a section were taken from paper C by author C, including an… - Case
Plagiarism
On review of a paper for Journal A, a referee recognised entire paragraphs of the manuscript from two published review articles that he himself had written. Both reviews were referenced in the manuscript with regard to particular topics, but the verbatim paragraphs were not attributed to the previously published reviews. The editor rejected the paper and pointed out the apparent plagiarism to… - Case
Plagiarism in a case report
…either an expression of concern about plagiarism or a letter of apology from the author. The Forum suggested finding out if one or both of the authors were involved in the plagiarism. The Forum noted that it is important that the published paper, if genuine, is linked to some form of formal correction, which could be either an expression of concern of a letter of apology.… - CaseCase Closed
Plagiarism and publication fee
A journal’s editors were informed about a plagiarism case just before the last step in the volume publication process. The publication fee for the paper was already paid by the author and the author completed and signed the publication agreement in which confirmed the paper's originality. The author was informed of the plagiarism issue and also that the paper would be withdrawn from… - Case
Potential plagiarism
In 2003, Journal A published an original article. In 2006, the editor received a complaint of plagiarism relating to a case report published by Journal B in 2000. The introduction of both articles had one identical paragraph and some paragraphs in the discussion were similar. The article published by Journal A did not reference Journal B, despite: (a) being easy to find on… - Case
Plagiarism in a systematic review
…re-written, the editors would not be interested in sending this paper out for peer review as there would not be enough new material to represent a sufficient advance beyond the previously published review. However, the editors wanted to ensure that the authors are aware of the seriousness of plagiarism and that the paper is not published in its current form in another journal. - CaseCase Closed
Plagiarism case
Journal X was contacted by Author A, who claimed that a paper published in that journal ten years previously (by Author B) was plagiarised from Author A’s article in Journal Y published approximately ten years prior to that. Author A requested the retraction of Author B’s paper. Journal X has run plagiarism software on both papers to see the degree of text replication and it is not… - Case
Wholesale plagiarism
…a specified time limit. - The editor should contact the authors’ institutions and request an investigation. The editor should inform the authors of his intentions. - The editor should notify Journal B’s editor and request that the original authors also be notified of the possible plagiarism.… - Case
Possible plagiarism in a cross over, double blind placebo controlled study
…the reviewers, however, felt that the two studies were “almost identical” raising the possibility of plagiarism. The editor sent the manuscript and the two reviews to a third reviewer to arbitrate, and in particular, to examine whether concerns should be raised about the similarities of the two papers. What should the editor do next?… - Case
Dispute over plagiarism
- Author A’s withdrawal did indicate problems with the paper, but it was difficult to know what to do without any evidence. - Plagiarism is generally discovered by reviewers and readers, and the editor of Journal X could also be seen as having information which should be investigated. - It was also unclear whether the editors of journals Y and Z knew about the plagiarism. - The editor of… - Case
Plagiarism in a case report
The whole discussion section of a submitted case report was almost identical to the discussion section of a previously reported, similar case written up by another group of authors in another journal. The only difference lay in the patient details. While the other paper had been referenced in the case report, the authors of this case report had not indicated that the whole discussion was identi… - CaseCase Closed
Suspected plagiarism
…the percentage similarity that should raise concerns? This varies widely—by discipline, even by editors within the same discipline. The similarity index needs to be reviewed carefully, and experienced editors will look at all aspects of the article and the sources when deciding if there is significant overlap. Is there a minimum cut-off score below which there is no need to check for plagiarism? One… - Case
Possible plagiarism
A Middle Eastern author submitted four papers on different subjects at around the same time (two single author, two with other authors). During in-house assessment, it was noted that two of the papers were very similar to previously published papers. Fuller inspection of the complete papers indicated unequivocally that plagiarism had taken place—in one of the papers even the figures have been… - Case
Potential case of plagiarism
One of the referees of our journal has brought to our attention a potential case of plagiarism. The referee feels that the a manuscript submitted to our journal, representing a retrospective study of a cohort of patients with a particular condition, plagiarises an article published in another journal in 2003. The authors are from an institute in a middle-eastern country. The…