- Case
Is retraction justified because of an author dispute over permission to use data?
Author X recently published a paper in Journal Y and has asked for the paper to be retracted. The reason given is that part of the data presented in the paper was published without the permission of a colleague, who is not listed as an author of the paper (and probably does not qualify for full authorship). This colleague is now seeking to publish the data in another journal and it is implied… - Case
Potential duplicate publication
…Journal C cited each other. The three papers had published literally days apart. The lead author is an overlapping author but the papers’ authorships are mostly driven by the site that the data come from. The editor of Journal B contacted the editor of Journal C as well as the corresponding authors of both the Journal B and C papers. It was difficult to contact the editor of journal C who was handing… - Case
Alleged plagiarism
…one specific point and the nearly identical sections had not been referenced. The editor of Journal A wrote to the author asking for an explanation. The author of the paper in Journal B works in a faculty of law. He discussed the two papers with colleagues who agreed that this was a violation of authorship and perhaps even copyright. He wanted to know how the journal intended to remedy the… - Case
A patient was given an experimental course of complementary medicine when a standard treatment was available
A case report was submitted to a journal, describing a patient with a very serious, curable infectious disease who had been given complementary medicine (plant extract) rather than the standard treatment. A search of the literature indicated that the authors were known to support complementary therapies. The alternative treatment was not evidence based. The case took place in a country were the… - CaseOn-going
Stolen ownership of a rare case
This is essentially an authorship issue which is beyond the ability of the journal to adjudicate. Several Forum attendees reported similar cases they had dealt with, and recommended contacting the authors’ institution to adjudicate the contested ownership. Additionally, the editor could consider informing the authors that it is their responsibility to follow up with the institution and that… - CaseClosed: author misconduct
Falsified references
An article was submitted to my journal and was sent for peer review. An editorial board member realised that a number of the references were incorrect: publication dates had been changed to make them more current. The author was contacted by email and telephone who said he/she had a number of students working for him (who were not listed as authors or in the acknowledgment) and they must… - CaseOn-going
Ethics approval for survey design
…assessment or evaluation, or for quality approval purposes. There are instances where the results of such survey analysis are appropriate to publish and exempt from IRB review, or for the authorship team to seek IRB approval for dissemination after data collection if an unexpected or novel relationship is found. However, in this instance, there is no clear documentation of the intent for a specific… - CaseCase Closed
Use of secondary data without proper attribution
…were the primary researchers. Questions for COPE Council Is this a form of plagiarism? Is it appropriate to claim authorship of research by not disclosing the source of secondary data (presumably data owned by the institution)? … - CaseCase Closed
Nuisance author
…You can listen to the podcast of this case from the menu on the right An author submitted a paper which went through the review process and was rejected. He is now sending abusive emails to me, the editor, and spamming an enormous number of people in his research area and the government (he even tried to contact the royal office) as a protest. He continues to submit his paper (over 20… - CaseClosed: author misconduct
Duplicate publication in possibly four papers
…for the most part, but one of its authors is also an author of two of the duplicated papers. To try to make this clear, the authorship of the four papers is as follows, where each letter indicates an author:1) A, B, C, D2) A, B, C, E3) A, B, F, G, H4) C, I, J, K, L The editor in chief of our journal wrote to the authors (A, B, and C) telling them that they had violated… - CaseCase Closed
Conflicts of interest, corrections, and student research
A journal usually publishes one student essay each issue. In a recent issue it published a student essay in support of a controversial but lucrative set of interventions. The paper declared no conflicts of interests and only listed two names in the acknowledgements section without describing their role in the manuscript. The author had been studying an MSc when the first manuscrip… - CaseCase Closed
Reviewer requests to be added as an author after publication
…review by R1). If it is the normal policy for the journal to have two reviewers and there were three in this case, but only one was compromised, perhaps the paper could stand? The editor would still need to publish a corrigendum explaining the revised authorship but he could justify publication based on the other reviews. In a similar vein, a suggestion was for the editor to consider post-publication… - CaseCase Closed
Should stockholders of a pharmaceutical industry declare conflicts of interest in a research paper?
…journal B including the name of generic medicine A as the sole treatment without mentioning any conflict of interest. The government committee on ethics in biomedical research is directed by author A. The American College of Physicians has updated its approach for declaring conflicts of interest in clinical guidelines and in some cases it proposes exclusion of authors from authorship or voting in… - CaseCase Closed
Withdrawal of acceptance based on potentially unconsented data
Two papers were retracted (without dispute from the authors) after a lengthy investigation. It was discovered that some of the data used in these articles were gathered without participant consent for the study or for publication (no participants are identifiable). The investigation was conducted by a public body in the country of the authors, and the journal has been told that they will not be… - Case
Plagiarism, double submission and reviewer ethicality
…stated above. One of the complaints was submitted in the form of a paper for publication; at present, this has not been sent out for review but is simply being treated as additional evidence/confirmation of plagiarism. (We have recently discovered that this paper has been posted on a web site devoted to plagiarism discussions.) Other points: The co-authorship has changed…