- Case
The overlapping papers with conflicting data
Three papers concerning one hospital problem had been submitted to three different journals. Before publication the three editors of the journals became aware of the three different papers and the substantial overlap between them. The three editors communicated with each other and realised that they had four concerns: 1. There was very considerable overlap among the three papers. There didn’t s… - CaseCase Closed
Paper published without permission or acknowledgement from institution
…submission and subsequent publication of the single author paper in the journal. The research institute said that they had not been able to reach an agreement with the author about the situation and asked the publisher to publish an erratum (or some similar note of concern) with the text: “The work was carried out while the author was at [xxx] funded by [xxx]. The experimental scheme set out in… - CaseCase Closed
Withdrawal of paper at proof stage
…typeset article for proof reading. The corresponding author contacted us stating that they wished to withdraw their submission, two weeks after we sent their paper for proof reading. As the chief editor, I immediately sent a message to the corresponding author and requested an explanation. The articles have been edited by one format editor, three peer reviewers, one manuscript editor, one copy… - CaseOn-going
Habitual plagiarist
…article by author P published in journal H. Publication of the article by author P predated the submission of CR2 by 7 years. In CR2, the text and clinical photographs were identical to the article of author P. As the journal is not indexed in any major database, no one had detected the plagiarism. We were able to stop publication of the second case (fortunately the manuscript was in the queue for the… - CaseCase Closed
Duplicate publication allegation
…papers and did not consider it to be a case of duplicate publication, and that we considered the matter closed. Clare Francis did not agree, and reiterated the issue of the article submission timings, insisting that the paper be withdrawn, and seeming to ignore the substance of what had actually been published. 'She' appealed to our status as a member of COPE as a reason that we should take on board… - Case
Has formal ethical approval been granted that satisfies publication criteria?
…submission process they had failed to demonstrate any insight into research governance. The editor suggested lessons to be drawn for the future and rejected the paper.… - Case
Is retraction justified because of an author dispute over permission to use data?
As the author has clearly stated that the data are correct, and the only dispute is a small section of the paper that was published without permission, the committee felt that a retraction is not necessary. As the degree of overlap is so small, this is unlikely to constitute duplicate submission. The second paper could cite the first paper and make a note that the data were published… - Case
Plagiarism and possible fraud
…published results in the second paper closely matched those of the first. The paper also seemed to have been copied entirely from the first paper, including the ethics committee approval. The editors wrote to N et al. asking for an explanation, evidence of the raw data, and copy of the ethics committee approval. The time line of ethical approval, submission, and publication meant that it would have been… - Case
Redundant publication by an editorial board member
…submissions arose because of the different groups concerned. The board member and his team did a lot of hard thinking and have made arrangements to ensure that this sort of thing cannot happen again. The editor is convinced that this was a case of poor control and communication between teams rather than a deliberate attempt to deceive. The board member offered his resignation, but the editor invited him to… - CaseOn-going
Allegation of authorship misconduct
…authors’ story about their own data origins is valid. If the authors are able to provide evidence of the originality of their work with dates that precede the submission to Journal X then this would enable the current journal to reject the accusation of the complainant. In this case it is also worth considering reporting the situation to the institution of the complainant because the evidence provided so… - CaseCase Closed
Questionable authorship information
…and the fact that it appears to have been changed following submission, justify investigation or withdrawal of the paper now prior to publication? Is there a process recommended to be followed for this purpose? … - CaseCase Closed
Critical comment and conflict of interest
…a 'Comment'. They explained that should Dr X revise the submission as a regular article, with a complete reference list and with a complete discussion of the body of scientific work, they would consider taking the new manuscript under review. Dr X then submitted a new, much longer, manuscript with a complete reference list. The manuscript was reviewed by two experts and underwent two major revisions before… - CaseOn-going
Ethical concerns about a study involving human subjects
…informed the editor of that journal of the duplicate submission and his concerns. Follow up (June 2014): After the relevant governmental department agreed to investigate, the manuscript was rejected by the journal. The journal did not receive a response from the editor of the other journal in which the article had been published.… - CaseOn-going
How to handle offers of promotion of authorship for sale
…cross-checked for duplicate submission using tools like those being developed by STM. This would provide evidence which could lead to an industry response. It seems unlikely that action against individual companies will be of much utility, even if it were possible, as more will surface rapidly. Young researchers in particular are often unaware of the status and intentions of these services, and may… - CaseCase Closed
Enquiry regarding copyright/retractions
…or updated) but that Editors/Publishers are not in agreement as to whether this is appropriate or how this should be approached. Aside from making a judgement on whether the submission is ‘redundant’ to the record, the journal’s main concern is that, if they consider the paper, they should avoid breaching the copyright/publishing agreement made between the other publisher and the… - CaseOn-going
Inconclusive institutional investigation into authorship dispute
…A informed the journal that he had a similar ongoing disagreement with Author B over Author A’s name in another journal. Author A also provided proof of legal name. According to our records, Author A’s name was incorrect on submission and Author A did not ask to correct it before publication (and had confirmed that the submission details were correct). When asked for an explanation of this, Author A claims… - CaseOn-going
Coauthor fails to respond to request to confirm coauthorship
…does not or is unwilling to respond, the editor might still consider publishing a statement from the corresponding author detailing the contribution of the coauthor. Another suggestion was to explain the contribution of the coauthor in the acknowledgement section. This situation could be avoided if at the time of submission all authors are contacted and asked to confirm their status as an… - Case
What involvement should a journal have in a dispute about an article published in the journal?
Our journal published a manuscript as part of an editors’ forum which, as an invited forum paper, received reviewer feedback but did not follow our usual double-blind peer review standard for regular submissions (the reviewers were aware of the author’s identity but the author did not know the identity of the reviewers). Following the publication of this article, the editor-in-chief… - CaseCase Closed
Using industry knowledge to evaluate an ethics case
…mean that it is right. If the editors determined that a Correction or Retraction was necessary based on the Publisher's expert evaluation, that would fall to their editorial discretion. The publisher representatives might choose to submit a Letter or a counter article either to this journal or another, in which case the editors could treat it as a regular submission (with all conflicts of… - CaseCase Closed
Confidentiality breach by an associate editor
The authors of a manuscript sent an official complaint to our journal regarding a breach of confidentiality by an associate editor (AE). The authors had been informed by the supervisor of a reviewer of a manuscript. After submission of the review, the reviewer received a confidential email from AE asking whether the favourable recommendation made by the reviewer would have been different if…