- CaseClosed: author misconduct
Duplicate publication and alleged image manipulation
…and asking for a response/explanation. The author freely admitted to the duplicate publication and paper 1 is in the process of being retracted. The allegation against paper 2 was image manipulation consisting of false bands being included in an assay figure. The editorial office reviewed the images and believes that they have been manipulated. As such they would like to retract the paper… - 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… - Case
Claim from an author that his name should not have been included as author on a paper
…author also affirms that all authors have seen and agreed to the submitted manuscript. Dr R was the corresponding author for this paper and she provided the requested assurances. The paper was reviewed, revised and accepted without any unusual comment. It was published online and was scheduled for print publication. We received a protest letter from Dr M in July (several months after online… - Case
Allegations of scientific fraud and unethical conduct of experiments with attempts to silence the whistleblower
…The allegations of fraud A paper reported a radioisotope test for diagnosis of a speci?c,acute,neurological disease with 100% accuracy. Replication studies failed to con?rm the ?ndings and suggested that the test is positive in a… - CaseOn-going
Salami slicing/duplicate publication
…transferred copyright or granted a licence to publish (irrespective of which journal published first) to journal A and journal B. If this occurred first for journal B, then the article in journal A is the one that should be subject to a correction or retraction. Journals A and B should review their author guidelines to ensure they have sufficient policies in place on redundant publication. - CaseCase Closed
Alleged misuse of confidential information
…A requested that the editor exclude author B as well as author C (another researcher from a different institution) as reviewers. Because the earlier paper made it clear that author B was a competitor, and external referee expertise was readily available elsewhere, the request was granted. After some minor revisions, the paper was accepted for publication in the journal. On the day of acceptance (the timing… - CaseClosed: author misconduct
Possible overlapping publications/data
…actually true. As editor of journal A, I forwarded all the information to my publisher. I plan to contact the authors on review and after discussion with COPE. My publisher has also informed journals B and C of our plans to contact COPE before taking any initial action. As well as asking for guidance on how best to handle this case, we would like COPE’s opinion on which journal should be… - CaseCase Closed
Authorship order dispute
…authorship order. The author (Dr D) who is refusing to sign the copyright undertook a substantial early literature review for the manuscript but this was taken over by another colleague (Dr E) when Dr D had to leave due to a long term illness. Dr C was the initiator of the subject matter for the study and oversaw the early directions of Dr D’s efforts. The manuscript was ultimately put together by… - Case
Unusual consent process in a vulnerable population
A clinical trial was conducted in a low income country. The trial involved two schools. At the first school (the control school), children would receive a one-off drug treatment for a common infection (such “mass drug administration” is the norm for treating and breaking the transmission cycle of this infection). At the second school, children would receive the same one-off drug treatment plus… - CaseOn-going
Concerns over research by an author in numerous, separate publications
…asking for more information and emphasising that strict confidentiality is assured. The Forum noted that the editor has a duty of care with regard to the journal’s published papers. The editor should contact the reviewer(s) of the 2004 paper that was published in his journal and ask them to look again at the paper. Other advice was to contact the other journals where the author has published as they… - Seminars and webinars
Seminar 2021: Reducing the inadvertent spread of retracted science: taxonomy considerations
…topics such as systematic review automation, semantic publication, and the citation of retracted papers, with funding from NIH, IMLS, the Alfred P Sloan Foundation, and NSF. Opportunities and perils of reforming retraction policies - CaseOn-going
Duplicate submission and authorship dispute
…journal, there were 10 authors. During the review process, two authors were removed from the article at their request. This happened in May, between manuscript resubmission. These two authors then submitted the case report to journal Y, with a new set of co-authors. We have confirmed with the Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of journal Y that they received their initial submission in May. As noted,… - CaseOn-going
Profusion of copied text passages
…paper, the editor may feel that borrowed phases can be overlooked, but this may be unacceptable in a review paper if the author is purporting the presentation of novel ideas. Regarding a process, the Forum suggested the editor may want to clearly state the journal policy in the instructions to authors, to head off similar cases in the future. The editor should continue to check all submitted… - CaseOn-going
Authors’ contributions and involvement by medical communications company
…the basis of an outline, and also the addition of references. Based on responses from authors, our contact was also concerned about authors’ level of understanding of the work and study design being reported in the manuscript. Our contact has been asked to respond to reviewers’ comments on behalf of authors. We asked for details of the manuscripts this person worked on; one is currently under… - CaseCase Closed
How to correct an incorrect decision to publish a flawed paper
…was processed before we started using online submission, and the reviewers’ and editor’s reports no longer exist. We believe that this inconsistency would justify a notice of correction to the original paper, by the criteria in the COPE guidelines. However, the case does not fit the usual pattern because we are not responding to new information but to a realisation that we made a mistake and… - CaseCase Closed
Duplicated gel images
The Forum agreed that the articles should be reviewed on a case by case basis. All agreed that the editor needs clarification of what is going on, perhaps by obtaining further expert opinion on the validity of the work. Is the duplication a result of laziness? The editor needs to establish whether the scientific record needs to be corrected. At the moment, the editor does not have enough… - Case
Authorship dispute
The paper in question describes a collaborative study of several datasets (not all previously published). A putative referee was asked to review the paper and declined. However, this led to a written complaint asserting that (s)he should be an author as (s)he had made a significant contribution to some of the work described in the paper. After promising comments from referees, the… - Seminars and webinars
Handling a case of misconduct
…care to employees, the requirements of funders and journals, and the need to maintain trust in the institution’s research output. Processes must be consistent and institutions should engage in ongoing review and improvement of their systems. Handling allegations of… - CaseOn-going
Fraud or sloppiness in a submitted manuscript
…review a manuscript on a randomized study. In the cover letter of the second manuscript, dated June 2014, the authors referred to this discussion and stated that 100 patients had been randomized to each group. [As an aside, in an online source detailing procedures carried out in the department of the authors, the procedure in question is said to have been performed more than 1200 times a year.… - Case
The ethics of drug/medication use evaluation audit cycles and publication of the results
We are seeking guidance on the ethical issues surrounding drug/medicine use evaluation (DUE or MUE) audit cycles, particularly with respect to the publication of findings but also perhaps with regard to the conduct of these audits in general. DUE is a quality improvement activity that involves data collection and evaluation (usually by audit), followed by ‘action’ or intervention and a r…