- CaseCase Closed
An ambiguous plagiarism case
A paper was published in journal A. The plagiarism check tool did not show any similarity during the peer review process. Some time after publication of the paper, the editor-in-chief was contacted by an author who had published a paper in journal B. They claimed that the paper published in journal A was plagiarised from their MSc research project thesis and asked journal A to… - Case
Plagiarism or redundant publication?
_ There had been some deception and a case of redundant publication, not plagiarism. _ The authors failed to declare an overlap, and citation is not enough. _ The authors should be given a chance to reply. _ A reminder should be sent (giving a time limited response), with reference made to the COPE guidelines otherwise the matter will be referred to the authors’ institution.… - Case
Redundant publication
A complaint of redundant publication was made by a reader, who claimed that a second paper had been published in the journal, after the first had already been published elsewhere. No permission letter was obtained by the author of the second paper and the first paper had not been cited. … - The editors should write to the authors and publish a retraction. - The editors should write to the… - Case
Possible plagiarism and fabrication
…with placebo for the difference in the incidence of nausea. 12. The second paper cites the first paper twice, once in the introduction and once in the discussion. Both citations are out of any context. According to the Royal College of Physician of London (1991), this represents serious scientific misconduct as it is about piracy, plagiarism, and fraud. It is very likely that actually all the data in… - CaseOn-going
Plagiarism by a possible predatory journal
…self-citations in the reference section. These particular references are either published in a known predatory journal or provide additional evidence that the authors of Article B are repeat offenders. During investigation Journal X identified that one of these references has plagiarised extensively (6 out of 7 figures) from another journal Z by a different publisher. In good faith Journal X shared this… - CaseCase Closed
Plagiarism versus questionable research writing practice
The authors of a paper were asked to explain alleged plagiarism in a submitted and subsequently accepted manuscript. This was based on a Turnitin report showing 28% similarity between the submitted manuscript (Author B) and a previously published paper (Author A), and 37% similarity between a published manuscript (Author A) and a submitted manuscript (Author B). The authors came back with an… - Case
Plagiarism, double submission and reviewer ethicality
This is a complicated case which involves possible plagiarism, double submission and reviewer misconduct. The timeline is as follows: In year n, a paper P1 authored by A1 and A2 was published in the English language journal X. The paper describes a theoretical analysis of a particular phenomenon. In year n+6, paper P2 was published in a non-English language outlet by… - CaseCase Closed
What extent of plagiarism demands a retraction versus correction?
…scientific validity of the way in which the proof-of-concept was demonstrated in the article. Question(s) for the COPE Forum • Where does the journal's responsibility to protect the student's rights lie and does it need to go further than the correction and retract? • Is this a clear case of plagiarism that demands a retraction? • How much does the structure and text need… - CaseOn-going
Habitual plagiarist
…informed my editorial board members about the case. One of the associate editors recognised author F’s name from another case report which had been accepted for publication at the journal. This second case report (CR2) had been reviewed and recommended by reviewers and no one suspected plagiarism. Following some research into this matter, the associate editor found that CR2 was an exact copy of another… - Case
Duplicate publication
The Forum was unclear about whether the same authors were involved—was this a case of plagiarism or duplicate publication? The Forum also noted that any action depends on the journal guidelines. Does the journal document in its guidelines how much overlap is allowed? If the authors are the same, the advice was to follow the steps in the COPE flowchart “Suspected redundant publication in… - CaseOn-going
Paper B plagiarised paper A: what to do if a journal does not respond?
The author X of a paper published by journal A complained to the editor-in-chief of journal A that his/her paper has been plagiarised by a paper that has been published later by journal B. Moreover, the authors of the paper in journal B allegedly did not respond to letters sent by author X asking for an explanation about the apparent plagiarism. The editor-in-chief of journal A compared… - CaseOn-going
Author requesting removal of verbatim text from published paper
The Forum advised that it is important where the overlap or plagiarism occurred in the article. If the verbatim text is in the results section or directly affects the findings of the paper, then retraction might be necessary. However, if the copied text is in the introduction or methods sections, for example, then a corrigendum might be more appropriate. The journal should decide if… - Case
Failure to ask permission
…several other specific concepts from my work (eg, storyboarding, 2-7-7-6) that appear in the chapter to be theirs, not mine. At one stage they write ‘We recommend’ giving a clear implication that it is theirs to recommend. The authors did not seek permission from me or the publisher of my book. Their publisher has been contacted, and says that the work is not a piece of plagiarism but a homage,… - Case
Allegation of fraudulent publication
…B in 2001 was almost an exact copy of an article published in Journal C in 1990. The Editor of Journal A examined copies of the articles from Journals B and C and concluded that this appeared to be a case of plagiarism. How should the Editor of Journal A act in this situation, given that Journal A is not the victim of the alleged plagiarism and that Journal C has ceased… - CaseCase Closed
Multiple redundant submissions from the same author
An author submitted a redundant publication to one of our journals. After reviewing the report from the anti-plagiarism software, we followed the COPE flowchart up to and including contacting the author's institution. We have not received a response from the author or the author's institution. Shortly afterwards, the same author submitted a (different) redundant publication to one of our other… - CaseOn-going
Submission of article by ghost author
…plagiarism rather than ghost authorship. It seems clear that the named authors of the article are not the original authors and that the true author did not give permission for publication. In this case, the journal is correct to follow a decision to retract the article following the COPE guidelines, having given the named… - 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
Journal refuses to correct the record
…to retract the article and publish the letter, as we had agreed. He replied that the article was no longer available. I sent him the link where I was able to retrieve it and he did not reply back. The original author of the paper contacted the author group's institution in September 2011, but he never received a response. In the COPE flowchart for suspected plagiarism, the journal… - Case
Paper published that is a verbatim copy of another published one by another author
…Forum wondered how the reviewer did not spot the plagiarism and suggested looking into the reviewer’s conduct. Another suggestion was to see if the author belongs to a society or association that the editor could lodge a complaint with. Other advice was to write an editorial in the journal highlighting the issue. This could be done anonymously and would demonstrate to the reader that the journal’s… - CaseOn-going
An unpublished PhD thesis included in an institutional library is submitted to an academic journal
…to do so. However, if individuals lift text verbatim from their thesis in their manuscripts, it may be picked up by text-matching software (TMS) when it is submitted to a journal. It should also be noted that in many disciplines much of the thesis will already have been published prior to the submission of the thesis, without being regarded as plagiarism. The journal’s course of action…