COPE's guidelines, as a flowchart, on how to respond to whistleblowers when concerns are raised about a published article on a social media site.
How should you respond when a published article is criticised on social media or a post-publication peer review site(s)? The criticism could include anonymous or not anonymous concerns about scientific soundness or allegations of plagiarism, figure manipulation or other forms of misconduct.
Key points
- Respect whistleblower's preference for anonymity
- Move the discussion away from the public domain
Related resources
About this resource
Cite this as
COPE Council. COPE Flowcharts and infographics — Responding to whistleblowers when concerns are raised via social media — English.
https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.2.14
©2021 Committee on Publication Ethics (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
https://publicationethics.org
Version history
Version 1: November 2015. Redesigned May 2021.
Full page history
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28 June 2023
Made citation visible.
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24 July 2021
Redesigned flowchart published, new page alias, updated citation information.
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11 February 2021
Sabah title
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9 November 2020
Text correction