- CaseCase Closed
Authorship dispute
…submitted, and that it has no element of plagiarism. He further assured our journal that he and the co-authors listed in the published version had written the manuscript and made all the corrections proposed by the reviewers. He stated, “We have never indulged or indulge in such silly misdoings and in order to keep the personal relationship amicable, we would like to withdraw the case report despite it… - CaseCase Closed
Plagiarism and copyright of material without permission
The presenters found an e-book where all of the 'chapters' comprised articles from different issues and volumes of their journal. These were used without the journal’s permission or any form of approval. The journal’s co-publisher neither gave permission nor was contacted. Also, no one contacted the authors of the articles involved for permission. The journal is open access with… - Case
Suspicion of breach of proper peer reviewer behaviour
The Forum suggested that the editor should follow the flowchart on “What to do if you suspect a reviewer has appropriated an author’s idea or data” in such cases. Even if the other journal has published the paper first, the editor can consult the submission dates for confirmation. The first journal would then have to retract the paper on the grounds of plagiarism, if indeed this had been… - Case
Parallels between unpublished manuscript and a published article from other authors
I am seeking advice on a confidential ‘letter of concern’ from an author (X) of a manuscript submitted before I was appointed editor of the journal but rejected by me on the advice of the associate editor. Author X is concerned with similarities or parallels between his manuscript, rejected in 2008, and a recently published article. I have looked over our file and contacted the associate… - Case
Co authors’ unwillingness to support retraction of a review
A review by three authors, with Dr X as the lead author, was published in Journal A. Five months later, the editor of Journal A was informed by Professor W that a figure in the review by Dr X had originally appeared in a research paper, co-authored by Professor W in Journal B in 1990. The professor also said that Dr X had published the same or very similar figures in journals C, D (research pap… - Case
Potential fabrication of data in primary studies included in a meta-analysis accepted for publication
…A. Professor X claims strong evidence of plagiarism, and questions whether the trials took place at all. He also notes that he has previously written to the authors of the trials but says that few have responded. Those that did respond, he believes, have failed to provide reassuring responses. Example response from authors sent to Professor X include the following: “The work has been… - CaseOn-going
Editor manipulation of impact factor
…field. However, acceptance of an article should not be contingent on introduction of inappropriate or tangential citations. For reviewers, when authors self-cite for more of the authors’ prior work, an extra check by editorial staff is needed. The new CEO at Clarivate in charge of impact factor issues is Annette Thomas. She holds an AMA (Ask Me Anything) Reddit on a regular basis according to… - CaseOn-going
Two reviewer reports contain a significant amount of verbatim textual overlap
…other reviewers. In the end, it has to be a judgement call by the editor. Whether or not the editor decides to invite these researchers to review other submissions depends on whether he accepts their explanations. One suggestion was to use plagiarism detection software on the reviewer reports and the special issue as a background check. This may give some indication of the overlap. Another… - CaseClosed: author misconduct
Falsified references
…plagiarism issues in three other journals by the same publisher and the plagiarism involved both submitted and published manuscripts. There were also coauthors for several of these papers. The editor contacted the author's dean, as did another editor. The editor received an email from the dean thanking the editor for her efforts. The research compliance officer for the university became involved, the… - Case
Duplicate publication: how much is too much?
_ The authors had failed to declare any overlap, and this could possibly be a case of plagiarism. _ Two independent reviewers should decide on the degree of overlap. _ The editor should inform the reviewers of the background of the case.… - Case
An article in a high profile journal that potentially misappropriates research published in lower impact journals
It has been drawn to our attention that a paper published in a high-impact journal in the field of biological sciences (Journal A) draws very heavily on research published in the lower-impact factor journal for which we work (Journal B), as well as on work published in other journals. One of the authors of the paper in Journal B has contacted the editor of Journal A to register his/her concern… - CaseOn-going
Allegation of authorship misconduct
…alleged plagiarism of ideas or method. The approach the journal should take therefore devolves on two issues: first the evidence for ‘theft’; and second, the nature of any prior contact between the two author/author groups which could explain how the ideas could have been accessed. On the first point, it does not appear as though any definite proof has been found to support theft of notes… - Case
The judgement of Solomon: a case of two strikingly similar papers
…conference organisers to ask if they could reveal the names of the reviewers of author A’s paper, but they refused. Our editors could find no evidence of plagiarism, except they did agree that the application of the method in this particular context was, to quote one of our editors, “striking” in its similarity. Group B responded robustly to our request for further details. They said that although… - Case
Duplicate publication based on conference proceedings
A paper was submitted to Journal A and concern was raised by a reviewer that a substantial part of the paper had been previously published in two other journals. This point was taken up with the authors, who denied any lack of originality and maintained that their manuscript contained previously unpublished data. They did admit that part of the work had been presented as an invited lecture at a… - CaseCase Closed
Authorship conflict
…contribution appeared in the published article. Author A alleged he gave authorisation to present the case in a conference to author B who later published the article in our journal without his consent. Question(s) for the COPE Forum • Who is the owner of this article? • Is this a case of plagiarism? • What action can we take regarding authors A and B?… - Case
Misuse of post-publication literature evaluation service
This is a case of self selection. The evaluation service does not state in its guidelines that an evaluator cannot select papers from his or her own journal, so there is a case for tightening up its written instructions to prevent a recurrence. However, it was agreed that this behaviour is acceptable if the evaluator declares a conflict of interest. As long as the evaluation is published… - CaseOn-going
Previous publication cannot be verified
Publisher A received a concern suggesting that a coauthored paper published in one of their journals had previously been published by the complainant in an industry in-house journal (now disbanded). All three individuals had worked for the company which sponsored the in-house journal. The publisher asked for a contact at the company so that they could request information about their publication… - CaseCase Closed
Behaviour of researcher during peer review
…Researcher A informed the editor of their actions (sharing the tables) many months after the event, claiming that the matter was under investigation by their institute. Questions for COPE Council Are there any ethical issues here? Is reproducing the format of generic tables (structure and heading) plagiarism? … - Case
Lack of acknowledgement of contributor
…career. The case was referred to the publisher’s Plagiarism and Piracy Task Force, but this committee could not agree, since some felt the editor had acted correctly, but others felt some sympathy with author A.… - Case
Competing interest issue
…commentary were published as one. The editor discussed the issue within an in-house editorial meeting, to ascertain whether the evaluation should be accepted, given that although the evaluator commented on the page, s/he was listed as an author. It was also discussed whether the evaluator might be too involved with the original article and it might be construed as self-promotion. Questions we…