- Seminars and webinars
Seminar 2021: Ethical authorship versus fraudulent authorship
…understanding the criteria for authorship. There is inflation in the number of authors which is problematic particularly the inclusion of gift, guest or ghost authorship. Moving on to "why do authorship problems exist?", Evan talked about authors, institutions and journals in relation to the factors affecting authorship problems including: credit, reputation, status and financial gains. He then went on to… - Seminars and webinars
European Seminar 2019: Retractions, a publisher's perspective
Catriona Fennell, Director of Publishing Services, Elsevier gives a publisher's perspective, and shares her own experience, at this session on retractions at the COPE European Seminar 2019. Thed Van Leeuwen speaks about the scientometrics of retractions, and Howard Browman shares the latest on COPE's revised retraction guidelines. Watch now - Case
Research involving unethical animal experimentation
A manuscript was submitted which described an intervention that partially corrected the results in stress injury in an animal model. Two reviewers drew attention to the fact that the stress model used in these experiments would not be ethically acceptable in the UK. The editor raised this with the senior author, who responded promptly stating that the work had already been presented at an… - CaseCase Closed
Potential image integrity flags on 15-year-old published papers
What should a journal do if an old (more than 15 years old) published paper is flagged on PubPeer for image concerns, but the case cannot be resolved due to the time lapsed? For example, if only low quality images are available online that cannot be analysed conclusively; some of the key authors may no longer be contactable; the raw data is no longer available; an institutional investigation… - Seminars and webinars
Caste and publishing: an ethics gap?
…authors), with the need to uphold critical thinking. To counter this we should engage actively with people affected by caste discrimination, to take action to prevent disadvantage when English is not the first language, and to be proactive in achieving fairness in scholarly publishing. Failure to do so can create harm and perpetuate assumptions about caste. A culture of inclusion… - CaseCase Closed
How to correct a published paper
A paper was published in July 2012. The author was told by their institution that one of the figures had to be replaced, in the interests of national security. Failure to do this would result in imprisonment. The editor checked with one of his reviewers who said that replacing the figure will not affect the results or conclusions of the paper. So, can we replace the published version… - Seminars and webinars
Handling a case of misconduct
…several external contacts including authors; and may reveal a more complex situation which requires further investigation. Institution’s perspective Rhys Morgan (Head of Policy, Governance and Integrity, Research Strategy Office, University of Cambridge) elaborates on these points from the institutional perspective, where there is a difficult balance to be achieved between the duty of… - Case
The ethics of drug/medication use evaluation audit cycles and publication of the results
…baseline audit, obtain consent from the patient for inclusion (‘if required by local authorities’), conduct a brief postoperative patient interview regarding pain management and, after discharge, retrospectively collect pain management data from the medical record . Data were submitted to the national project team for collation and assessment, with individual and combined results fed back to… - CaseCase Closed
Erratum query
…the conclusions are unaffected. The erratum in journal A should be linked to the research article so that if readers should look up the article, they will see what has happened. So, the erratum only needs to be linked to the research article. The authors of the review article could also decide whether or not they want to submit an erratum to the review. But in this case, it would seem… - CaseCase Closed
Duplicate publication
We were made aware of a double publication in our journal dating from 20 years ago. A paper which was originally published in French in another journal the year previously was translated and published in our journal. The editorial paperwork is long lost, however, the principal author is a member of our editorial board. They readily responded and explained that it was not uncommon at that time… - CaseCase Closed
Can two DOIs be assigned to the same manuscript?
…publication, two DOIs are required. The final published version should have been improved by the peer review process and so there can be two DOIs for the original preprint and the published version of record. A note should be added to the preprint version to state that the article has been published. Also, the author should acknowledge the previous version in the new manuscript as a reference or… - Forum discussion topics
COPE Forum 9 September 2015: Who “owns” peer review?
…data. Journals, on the other hand, often conduct confidential review processes and wish to restrict the sharing of comments exchanged during peer-review. Emergence of these services therefore prompts a number of concerns and questions as to how best ensure author, editor, reviewer and journal interests are protected. Questions Does it violate confidential/blind… - Forum discussion topics
COPE Forum 12 March 2013: Text recycling
The topic for discussion at this Forum was ‘Text recycling’. Self-plagiarism, also referred to as ‘text recycling’, is a topical issue and is currently generating much discussion among editors. Opinions are divided as to how much text overlap with an author’s own previous publications is acceptable, and editors often find it hard to judge when action is required. In an attempt to get some… - Case
Invasive intervention without consent
…committee approval, but the editor was worried about the level of consent.The authors were therefore contacted and they responded: “Besides the approval from the local ethics committee, all patients or their relatives had to give spoken as well as written informed consent before inclusion in the treatment group. The majority of the patients were awake, and therefore able to understand the information… - Case
Overseas editor dismissed from university for fraud
…indicated the editor was the author or coauthor of 19 of the papers. Laboratory notebooks detailing the research had disappeared. The university committee stated that the study falsely presented data, and that these had been manipulated to produce the desired statistical results. The editor stated that there had been honest errors and that the laboratory staff had used poor research methods. The editor is… - CaseOn-going
Correction, retraction, or expression of concern?
…the data’, which is one of the scenarios listed in the feedback from PMC, could range from over-stating of findings to data falsification. Advice from a neutral, domain-expert third party could be useful in determining this. In terms of actions, if the issues are confined to a failure to address limitations or adequately describe methods, then the editors may like to offer the authors the… - CaseCase Closed
Revoked parental consent
…before the issue was to be folioed, the parents contacted the authors and revoked consent. The journal was able to pull the article prior to publication. The editorial board is concerned about this happening again and what the course of action would be if consent is withdrawn from a case that has already been published. Question(s) for the COPE Forum• Once written consent is… - Research
CrossCheck guidance: an analysis of typical cases of plagiarism in different disciplines 2010
…disciplines when using CrossCheck. For authors, these lists can act as an instruction for authors on plagiarism, from which they can learn more about plagiarism and CrossCheck, and know how to avoid being accused of plagiarism. This research project was proposed by Professor Yuehong (Helen) Zhang and Dr Xiaoyan JIA, and will be conducted by them and their team (editors: Hanfeng Lin, Ziyang Zhai,… - CaseOn-going
Extensive publication errors. Should we 're-publish'?
…Since our intention was to honour a deceased colleague, would it be appropriate to 'republish' the entire excerpt free of error, so it can appear in the form the author originally intended? My board feels that the extent version of the excerpt is an insult to the author and her family (who kindly edited and prepared the excerpt for publication). The excerpt was originally presented as part of the… - Forum discussion topics
COPE Forum 10 June 2015: Prior publication and theses
…view electronic theses as prior publication, the remainder either treated submissions on a case by case basis or would not consider publication. This survey was necessitated, in part, because publisher websites are often unhelpful in providing usable advice on this issue. Major commercial publishers are often ambiguous/silent on the question in author rights and editorial pages.