- Research
Authors’ awareness of publication ethics: An international survey 2009
…of interest, access to data, redundant publication, non-publication, dual submission, salami publishing, plagiarism, image manipulation, informed consent, fabrication, and falsification. We will use short vignettes rather than posing direct questions about awareness to avoid leading questions. To reduce respondent burden but at the same time including vignettes to cover all the important issues, we… - Discussion documents
Addressing ethics complaints from complainants who submit multiple issues
…allegations were made regarding plagiarism, but evidence presented consisted only in relation to common English phrases like “…has been proven to”, “In previous research, we observed that…”. In other cases, complainants list articles with similar titles as incidences of plagiarism; however, the content turns out to be entirely different. Complainants may flood discussion threads by repeatedly… - 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 - 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An unpublished PhD thesis included in an institutional library is submitted to an academic journal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… - 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?… - Seminars and webinars
European Seminar 2019: Analysis of retractions, initiators and reasons for retractions
Session on retractions at the European Seminar 2019 chaired by Heather Tierney, COPE Council, with presenter Thed Van Leeuwen, who shares the results of a study of all retracted papers published in journals processed for the Web of Science (WoS). Thed Van Leeuwen describes the reasons for retractions, motivation for retraction and who retracts. Catriona Fennell gives the publisher's perspective… - 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.… - Translated resources
Webinar 2020: research and publishing ethics challenges and best practices
…highlights the main research and publishing issues such as: authorship issues; plagiarism; falsification and fabrication of data, processes or results. Best practices Resources for best practice in research and publication ethics: COPE's principles of transparency and core practices. The Singapore statement on research practices 2010 San Francisco Declaration… - Forum discussion topics
Ethical considerations around book publishing
…increasingly self-publication. Questions for discussion Are most of the publication ethics issues the same in book publishing as in journal publishing (eg, plagiarism, authorship, ethics approval, consent, peer review)? Are there particular problems with books (eg, how to retract a full book? How to retract part of a book–a single chapter within an anthology/edited… - CaseOn-going
Authorship dispute
…after author A left the research collaboration. Further questions to COPE: Author B stated that author A committed plagiarism and requested that the paper must be retracted. There is considerable evidence that plagiarism may have occurred by author A. What would the COPE suggest we do?… - Seminars and webinars
Trends and issues in publication ethics
…Academic Divisions of the Chinese Academy of Sciences seminar, 2021 The Academic Divisions of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CASAD) organised a seminar in September 2021, with COPE invited to present on the trends and issues in publication ethics. The integrity of peer-reviewed literature is important in retaining public confidence in scholarship. Trust is a key component of… - Guidelines
Retraction guidelines
…consider retracting a publication if: They have clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of major error (eg, miscalculation or experimental error), or as a result of fabrication (eg, of data) or falsification (eg, image manipulation) It constitutes plagiarism The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper attribution to… - Case
Retraction or correction?
…href="https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts/plagiarism-published-article"> the COPE flowchart for suspected plagiarism in a published article. It would seem that the editors find the response from the authors insufficient and unsatisfactory, and it is clear from the flowchart what the next recommended steps should be. If the editor believes that the omission was not intentional, the authors could be allowed to fix the oversight. The editor could let… - CaseOn-going
Excessive self-citation in a book chapter
…Plagiarism screening performed at the time of publication did not show any suspicious activities. The review of all chapters published in the book confirmed that the review was performed in line with best practices; citation manipulation was an isolated incident identified only for the introductory chapter. The introductory chapter was sent out for an additional post-publication review which… - Case
Duplicate publication
…The American editor has now written to the senior author of the received manuscript requesting an explanation for this attempt at duplicate publication. To date no response has been received. He, together with other senior editors in the United States, has already published an editorial stating that plagiarism or proven duplicate publication would be punished by denying the individuals concerned… - CaseCase Closed
Increased number of casual submissions
…without following even basic principles of scientific writing and publication ethics. The incidence of plagiarism and potential compromise of publication ethics is increasing. Increased numbers of submissions of such poorly written casual submissions take substantial time and resources, adding a lot of pressure to the editorial process. We believe some of the reasons why this is happening… - CaseCase Closed
Critical comment and conflict of interest
…multiple cases of plagiarism and recycling fraud found in their works. In addition, earlier in the year in which Article 1 had been published, Dr Y was informed that an allegation of scientific fraud in regard to one of their own papers in Journal B had been made to their institution by Dr X. As a result, Dr Y could not publicly engage in a criticism of Dr X or their work as the case was still pending.… - Seminars and webinars
Seminar 2021: How do publication ethics practices for journals apply to book publishing?
…types of issues facing different publication formats. The proportion of queries or complaints differ, in terms of discipline, between books and journals. In books the highest proportion are in the applied sciences followed by humanities, medicine and life sciences, whereas for journals it is predominantly medicine and life sciences. Authorship, data (errors and fabrication), and plagiarism are the…