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  • Discussion documents

    Preprints

    The COPE preprints discussion document addresses how preprints serve research communities, with guidance on navigating the ethical challenges and opportunities presented to journal editors. COPE welcomes comments which add to this ongoing debate. The benefits of preprints are addressed such as accelerating research communication and establishing precedence; giving editors opportunities…
  • Forum discussion topics

    COPE Forum 30 April 2018: Preprints: continuing the conversation

    Preprint platforms have been common in physics and mathematics but the preprint landscape is changing rapidly with new platforms emerging across various disciplines. This raises opportunities for discussion across communities and for all those involved: preprint platforms, journals, authors, funders and institutions. COPE has facilitated this discussion previously via an earlier forum…
  • Case
    On-going

    Preprint plagiarism

    Author group A deposited a preprint onto a preprint server and simultaneously submitted the manuscript to journal A. Peer review in journal A took some considerable time, but the paper (paper A) was eventually published. During the long peer review of paper A, author group A noticed that another set of authors, author group B, had published paper B in journal B. While paper B was submitted…
  • Forum discussion topics

    COPE Forum 24 July 2017: Preprints: what are the issues?

    Preprints and working papers have been posted and shared for many years. They report research results that have not undergone peer review, although in many cases the authors also submit to a journal (before, after or at the same time as making a preprint available). In the past 5 years, the number of preprint servers and preprints has expanded and new disciplines, notably biology and life…
  • Seminars and webinars

    WCRI 2019: Preprints and their place in the publication ethics landscape

    While preprints have existed in some disciplines for decades, preprints and preprint platforms are becoming more and more common across the entire landscape of publishing. The total output from preprints remains low in comparison to published journal articles, however, preprints are growing rapidly across many disciplines. Preprints also offer some interesting questions and potential concerns…
  • Case
    Case Closed

    Authors referring readers to an objectionable version of an article on a preprint site

    …commentary to the editorial office, the authors posted an earlier version of their paper – with objectionable material – to a preprint site. The authors noted in the preprint what material would be removed prior to publication in the journal. In the published version of their paper, the authors linked to the preprint version. The editorial team was distressed that the authors used the journal to direct…
  • Case
    Case Closed

    Can two DOIs be assigned to the same manuscript?

    A preprint server owned by a commercial publishing company posted a paper and assigned a DOI to the preprint. The manuscript was then submitted to peer reviewed journal X, owned by a different publisher. Assuming acceptance at the journal, can the article be published under a different DOI belonging to journal X? At journal X, Crossref registration is automatic. However, can two…
  • Case

    Alleged unauthorized use of data and possible dual publication

    …already published (as cited on the database website, but not in the paper) as a preprint article. As a comparison of the two manuscripts did not reveal any obvious differences in content, the reviewer questioned whether this constituted dual publication. (3) questions over the use of a particular method. The reviewer called the use of this method “scientifically unacceptable”, stating that the…
  • Case
    Case Closed

    Pre-publication in a discussion paper series

    …website so that the publisher has the right of first publication. The publisher stated that upon acceptance for publication, authors may deposit the abstract of their paper or an executive summary on this website. They said that in accordance with the publisher policy for online deposit of work, preprints or post-prints should only be deposited into institutional repositories or faculty websites…
  • Case
    On-going

    Is this previous publication?

    …journal policy. Does the journal allow pre-print publication (ie posting of non-peer-reviewed findings) or are these considered ‘prior publication’ (journals vary on their policies on this)? Whatever the policy,  the editor should also ensure there are no copyright issues. Otherwise, all agreed that the paper could be published. There are no overriding ethical issues as long as the dual publication is…
  • Guidelines

    Ethical guidelines for peer reviewers

    …manuscript submissions to journals, but can also include reviews for other platforms and apply to public commenting that can occur pre- or post-publication. Reviews of other materials such as preprints, grants, books, conference proceeding submissions, registered reports (preregistered protocols), or data will have a similar underlying ethical framework, but the process will vary depending on the…
  • Seminars and webinars

    COPE webinar 2018: Creating and implementing data research policies

    …policies across all its journals since 2016. As reported in a preprint Standardising and harmonising research data policy in scholarly publishing  (Hrynaszkiewicz et al, 4 April 2017), an expert working group found commonalities among the publisher’s 2500 journals and consulted with editors, librarians, and funders. It defined a company-wide…
  • Research

    Paper mills research

    …notices are applied to all copies of a paper such as preprint servers and article repositories. Related resources Paper mills COPE Position Statement 2024 Publication misconduct…
  • Forum discussion topics

    COPE Forum: 13 November 2017: Self-Citation: where's the line?

    A recent post on Scholarly Kitchen [1] raised some interesting points about the ethics surrounding citation, and specifically self-citation. Previously, COPE has discussed related issues surrounding self-citation by journals and editors [2] and citation of preprints [3]. During this forum, we broadened the discussion…
  • Case
    Case Closed

    Reviewer concerns about transparency of peer review process

    Our journal uses an internally transparent process where throughout the editor or peer review process, authors, editors and reviewers are all aware of the identities of who is involved. Reviewers are also told—when initially solicited to do a peer review—that they will be named on the final article manuscript as a reviewer. Prior to publication, the pre-print version of a text is sent to…
  • Case
    Case Closed

    Publication of a manuscript on an external website after acceptance but prior to journal publication

    …manuscripts on preprint servers, for example, is permissible, but this should be clearly indicated on the journal website. In the present case, the journal does not have an open access policy and at the time of submission the journal assumes copyright of the article. The Forum agreed that the authors were in the wrong here, but the right thing to do now is for the journal to publish the paper. If the…
  • Seminars and webinars

    Seminar 2022: Book wars

    …the retail challenge presented to publishers – how to make businesses more reader-centric, building channels of communication and rethink the role publishes could and should play in the environment. Audience Q&A There were many questions raised following the presentation that addressed a range of topics including: • Self-publishing, and a relation to pre-prints
  • Seminars and webinars

    Seminar 2021: Reducing the inadvertent spread of retracted science: taxonomy considerations

    In this webinar, the speakers discussed findings from a Sloan funded project, Reducing the inadvertent spread of retracted science. Panelists shared resources for educating authors, editors, and other stakeholders about the importance of retraction, ideas for emerging cross industry collaborations, and suggestions…
  • Case
    On-going

    Allegation of authorship misconduct

    …or of a presentation/documentation of that work? The journal could ask the complainant for evidence of submission of their work to Journal X, or whether they submitted anything to a public repository or preprint server; was the method presented at a conference with proof from a conference proceedings or poster? If the ‘stolen’ ideas exist only in the complainant’s notebook, how could the other…
  • Seminars and webinars

    Seminar 2021: How do publication ethics practices for journals apply to book publishing?

    …width: 90px; height: 90px;" />Jennifer Wright leads Cambridge University Press’s Research Integrity and Publication Ethics team, and supports Cambridge’s books, journals, higher education programme, and preprint platform in publication ethics best practice. She is also part of Cambridge’s Scholarly Communications Research & Development team and supports a broad range of activities in open research,…

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