All Flowcharts

COPE Flowcharts

COPE flowcharts offer a step by step process, for practical use on handling different aspects of publication ethics issues. 

For ease of use, we have gathered all of COPE's flowcharts into one downloadable PDF which includes the flowcharts listed below.

Allegations of misconduct

• Reviewer suspected to have appropriated an author’s ideas or data
• Responding to whistleblowers when concerns are raised directly
• Responding to whistleblowers when concerns are raised via social media

Authorship and contributorship

• Changes in authorship: Addition of extra author – before publication
• Changes in authorship: Removal of author – before publication
• Changes in authorship: Addition of extra author – after publication
• Changes in authorship: Removal of author – after publication
• Ghost, guest, or gift authorship in a submitted manuscript
• How to spot authorship problems
• How to recognise potential authorship problems

Conflicts of interest/Competing interests

• Undisclosed conflict of interest in a submitted manuscript
• Undisclosed conflict of interest in a published article

Data and reproducibility

• Fabricated data in a submitted manuscript
• Fabricated data in a published article
• Image manipulation in a published article

Ethical oversight

• Suspected ethical problem in a submitted manuscript

Intellectual property

• Plagiarism in a submitted manuscript
• Plagiarism in a published article

Journal management

• General approach to publication ethics for the editorial office
• Systematic manipulation of the publication process
• Systematic manipulation of the publication process suspected before publication
• Systematic manipulation of the publication process suspected after publication

Peer review processes

• What to consider when asked to peer review a manuscript
• Peer review manipulation suspected during the peer review process
• Peer review manipulation suspected after publication
• How to recognise potential manipulation of the peer review process

Post-publication discussions

• Redundant (duplicate) publication in a submitted manuscript
• Redundant (duplicate) publication in a published article

COPE flowcharts in various languages

Arabic | Chinese | Croatian | French | Italian | Japanese | Persian | Polish | Spanish | Turkish