COPE guidance as a flowchart on what to do if you suspect ghost, guest, or gift authorship in a submitted manuscript.
Key points
- Suspend peer review if suspicion is raised about authorship
- Once the relevant investigation has been followed up with authors, further action depends on whether an author(s) has been identified as a guest, ghost or gift author.
Related resources
- How to recognise potential authorship problems, infographic
- How to spot authorship problems, guidance
Core practices:
About this resource
Cite this as
COPE Council. COPE Flowcharts and infographics — Ghost, guest, or gift authorship in a submitted manuscript — English.
https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.2.18
©2021 Committee on Publication Ethics (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
https://publicationethics.org
Version history
Version 1: 2006. Redesigned May 2021.
Full page history
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3 February 2023
Made citation visible.
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24 July 2021
Redesigned flowchart published, new page alias, updated citation information.
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12 February 2021
Change to title following revision to All Flowcharts PDF