In 2019 COPE conducted research to gain more understanding of publication ethics issues in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. COPE undertook this research with the support of Routledge and commissioned primary research with Shift Learning.
The results from Education journals show which are the most serious, most widespread, most frequent issues, and those editors are least confident in dealing with.
Addressing language and writing barriers were cited as major ethics issue faced by Education journal editors. This group of editors also reported that detecting plagiarism and poor attribution standards was the most serious issue they faced and that issues around data and/or image fabrication were those they felt least confident addressing.
Most serious
- Detecting plagiarism and poor attribution standards
- Fraudulent submissions
- Data and image fabrication
Most widespread
- Addressing language and writing barriers while remaining inclusive
- Detecting plagiarism and poor attribution standards
- Recognising and dealing with bias in reviewer comments
Most frequent
- Addressing language and writing barriers while remaining inclusive
- Issues around the way authors receive and respond to criticism
- Detecting plagiarism and poor attribution standards
Least confident in dealing with
- Data and/or fabrication issues
- Intellectual property and copyright issues
- Fraudulent submissions