- CaseOn-going
Should we retract a published paper with a high similarity match?
The journal published an original article in 2022. Recently, we received feedback from a third party that the paper is similar to the authors' other work published in 2019. The duplicate rate of the initial submission was 31% and the final version was 24% which is within the journal’s standard. The concern was that the paper may not add value as the authors have already published similar… - CaseOn-going
Unresponsive authors delaying publication
The journal received a submission which proceeded through peer review and was recommended for publication. The authors responded to the revision letter, providing a detailed itemised list of changes and revised their manuscript accordingly. The revised manuscript was subsequently accepted for publication. The normal process for articles in this journal is that when papers are accepted… - Case
Is it unethical to reject unregistered (or late-registered) trials?
We would like other editors’ opinions as to whether adhering to the journal’s policy on trial registration may contribute towards the non-publication of trial results (and thus bias in the literature). All of our journals have the same policy on trial registration—for studies started before July 2005, we permit retrospective registration (providing it was done before submission) but for… - Case
Duplicate publication
Author X contacted the editor of Journal A to enquire whether the journal would be interested in a review of a new concept in the treatment of a disease, written by author X and two co-authors. Author X said that his co-authors had suggested writing the paper for another journal but he had convinced them to submit the paper to Journal A. The editor invited submission and, after peer review,… - Case
Retraction or correction?
…needed to compare the results with those reported in the other published paper. Therefore, they compared the results using direct quotation on the column. After the editors reviewed the submitted article it was determined that the "missed" data were not in their original submission. The authors responded that as they mentioned before, only a column was missed in the manuscript and that the… - CaseCase Closed
Potentially fake academic affiliation
…://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines/sharing-information-among-editors-chief-regarding-possible-misconduct">Sharing of Information Among Editors-in-Chief Regarding Possible Misconduct. This states that 'sharing of information concerning a specific journal submission with individuals who are outside the journal’s review process is inimical to the principles of confidentiality...there is a concern that… - CaseOn-going
Excessive self-citation in a book chapter
…href="https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/ai/about/submissions">here and here). In this case it appears that the publisher has investigated the sources and deemed them to be valid citations. To address the current concern, the publisher may wish to post a correction or editorial note stating that excessive self-citation was identified after… - CaseOn-going
Salami slicing/duplicate publication
…thesis. The wordings of all sections of the article have major overlap which could not have been detected by either journal on submission, as the article was not available on either journal’s website at that time. Questions for COPE Council Is it ethical to submit a number of articles derived from a PhD thesis on different aspects to various journals, and… - CaseCase Closed
Academic freedom
…are named authors on the manuscript, as all three actively engaged in the research and writing. Just prior to submission of the manuscript, the student was successful in obtaining employment in the civil service. Ironically, the student is now subject to the rules criticised in the manuscript. Breach of the rules can have severe consequences, including dismissal. The student has… - CaseCase Closed
Authorship dispute unsatisfactorily resolved by institution
…contributed to the writing of the text. The claimant provided evidence of this in the form of screenshots of a submission confirmation email and subsequent rejection email from another journal for a manuscript with a similar title, a Word document labelled as the claimant’s PhD thesis and details of overlap with the published paper, and a screenshot of an email reported to have been sent by the claimant to… - CaseCase Closed
Request by organisation to retract article and publish expression of concern
…writing standardsNote: not all members of the organisation were aware that the letter was sent (one of the editors is a member of this organisation), and the author of the article and certain members of this organisation have a history of disagreeing on previous articles that the author has published in other journals on the same topic (furthermore, the author once had a submission accepted at… - CaseCase Closed
Parental consent for participants
The reviews for the article were returned and the article was rejected based on the merit of the paper. The matter regarding this specific submission is closed. The authors followed the letter of the law in their country, but the editor still wonders if there should be a universal age for consent of minors, without parental approval. There are many sides to the issue.… - CaseCase Closed
Alleged misuse of confidential information
…submission independently replicated the mapping data of the earlier paper and proceeded to identify the gene by exome sequencing, a technology that had become widely available since the publication of the mapping paper in 2006. Since the mapping was independently replicated, the methodology used would have been sufficient to identify the gene whether any prior knowledge was available or not. Author… - CaseCase Closed
Correcting errors versus privileged information
…grounds that it was far too long and contained redundant and unnecessary material. One reviewer (B) invited a revised version. A second round of review led to the suggestion by reviewer D, that BCD publish an erratum acknowledging the errors uncovered by the submission, together with a further comment from author A. The handling editor in turn proposed that author A and authors BCD submit a joint… - CaseCase Closed
Authorship order dispute
The Forum raised the question that since Dr F has a conflict of interest (as an author), should he be acting as a mediator? All agreed that the paper cannot be published until this authorship issue is resolved. The advice was to contact the other authors and ask for their opinions. The Forum advised that to avoid a similar situation in the future, after submission, all authors should be copied… - CaseClosed: author misconduct
Question of paper retraction due to proven fabricated data
…errors in the trial call the study’s reliability into question. Provides transcript of relevant court ruling. This makes it clear that the author became an expert witness in February 2007, after publication of paper but before submission of the letter. He clearly became an expert witness on the basis of the study. Transcript says that author acknowledges inaccuracies—11 of 27 patients who originally… - Case
Pedigree descriptions: genotyping results for family members
We received a paper which describes genotyping results from a large number of individuals (>50) from five unrelated families, in which family members had various blood and liver conditions. On submission we noted that the paper included specific details regarding the clinical histories of individuals in each family. Some individuals were described in substantial detail, others only briefly.… - Case
Possible serial misconduct in relation to coauthors and other activities
…the work from a scientific perspective made it clear it was not acceptable for publication and I have informed the author of this. The author has two other manuscripts in submission and I have requested documented confirmation that the listed coauthors of these approve of their content. Furthermore, my attention has been drawn to items in four other journals raising issues about coauthors’ approval… - CaseCase Closed
Publication of correspondence relating to a paper currently online
…one has been submitted as a full letter via the journal’s manuscript submission and tracking system. Questions for COPE Council Would COPE encourage the journal to publish the comments and letters received to date? Or should the journal continue to hold them until a resolution has been reached about the article itself? … - CaseOn-going
Institution wants to retract despite ongoing legal proceedings
…publication of article A and before publication of article B, a senior colleague of author A at institution A contacted publisher A asking for article A to be retracted. The claimant said author A had left institution A after the submission to journal A but before publication. The claimant alleged that author A used other researchers’ data without permission and used the affiliation without approval…