- Event
COPE Forum: Thursday 1 August 2019
The next COPE Forum will be a face to face meeting at the INANE Conference in Topaz Ballroom 2, The Reno Renaissance Hotel in Reno, Nevada, USA. it will run from 2.15pm to 5pm (Pacific Daylight Time). - News
In the news: February 2022
…conference with >1300 attendees from >80 countries in December, free of charge, that explored DEI issues, discoverability of research from areas outside Europe and North America, Research Integrity among other topics. Recorded content will be made available. DORA listed their own, and other organisations' progress in 2021 toward the - News
Case discussion: Editing peer review comments
…href="https://publicationethics.org/events/cope-forum-friday-6-march-2020">COPE Forum on 6 March. With this in mind, we highlight two cases from the COPE archive: Case 97-08 likely predated the online editorial management systems that allow confidential comments for the editor to be separated from their comments for the author. The submitter of the case… - Event
Scholarly publishing in a connected world: Turning disruptions into opportunities
…publishing industry more widely. There will be tips on how to spot and deal with suspected paper mill submissions and guidance on how to manage large scale paper mills. Read more and register… - News
Creating and implementing research data policies: COPE webinar report
…availability, and, if available, to require persistent identifier/s and applicable licence information. The guidelines ask for certain TOP Statements to be provided in journals, as explained in a preprint about implementing the guidelines. Audience questions covered practical… - Case
Can a scientific paper be published anonymously?
The assumption is that everything should be signed and there is no adequate reason for anonymisation. Writing a paper is like signing a cheque and the authors must be prepared to take the responsibility. The laboratories concerned could be anonymised. The distinction is that this is a scientific paper and the authors have to be prepared to stand by what they report and therefore they must sign… - News
Case Discussion: Editor and reviewers requiring authors to cite their own work
…discussion document which will be ready, on our website, early this year. Nancy Chescheir on behalf of the COPE Education Subcommittee Read January 2019 COPE Digest newsletter and use the COPE… - Case
Double plagiarism
A researcher has written to us to point out that a paper published in a German journal in 1993 was put together almost verbatim from articles published in the BMJ in 1989 and the New England Journal of Medicine in 1992. About three quarters of the material in the article in the German paper comes from these two journals. It may be that the data are original but it seems unlikely. What should… - Case
Publishing complications and patient safety
…which is attended by a small audience of around 120 doctors at which participants present their complication cases. At this meeting, many basic complications are discussed, which can be related to lack of education, lack of knowledge of materials, lack of knowledge about patient disease, or insufficient training, some of which have devastating outcomes. Many of these complications are avoidable. - Case
Attempted redundant publication?
…further detail only provided here.” The authors did reference their previous paper in their introduction to their present paper, but did not make clear that there was substantial overlap with the previously published paper and did not send us a copy. I have asked the authors for their comments. Assuming that the two papers do turn out to be substantially the same, should we contemplate some… - Case
The fraudulent letter
Letters to the editor are difficult to authenticate. The journal should publish a retraction and highlight this with an editorial. The dean should be notified and advised to write to every student pointing out this breach of ethics.… Publication and research ethics related to geopolitical issues
…/research-square-companys-position-on-the-crisis-in-ukraine/">Research Square Company's position on the crisis in Ukraine, 15 March 2022 Clarivate: Clarivate to cease all commercial activity in Russia, 12 March 2022 A BMJ editorial notes that it will continue to consider…- Case
False memory syndrome
A doctor has submitted an account of how his daughter falsely accused him of having abused her as a child. His daughter is another British doctor. We would like to publish the account as part of a package of articles on false memory syndrome. The questions we are considering are: (1) Can it ever be right to publish something that describes the intimacies of a family conflict, to illustrate… - Seminars and webinars
COPE webinar 2018: Creating and implementing data research policies
…Guidelines is not to mandate for data access per se, but to mandate disclosure of data availability, and, if available, to require persistent identifier/s and applicable licence information. The guidelines ask for certain TOP Statements to be provided in journals, as explained in a - News
In the news: May & June 2022
…href="https://ecoevoevoeco.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-promise-and-perils-of-preprint.html">preprint scouts to identify preprints that may be a good fit for a peer-reviewed journal may be a useful method to increase appropriate submissions, but needs to be implemented with care. Predatory publishing In a comment about a global study by InterAcademy Partnership about - News
In the news: March Digest
…target="_blank">https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0198117 Meanwhile, COPE Council member Vivienne Bachelet and colleagues have published a protocol of a research study to investigate the prevalence or otherwise of the misrepresentation of affiliations by authors. The results will be submitted to the WCRI and will be published in a peer reviewed journal - News
In the news: July & August 2022
…href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/06/16/study-retractions-take-too-long-curb-misinformation">new study in PNAS which found that by the time a paper is retracted, public attention is already diminished. Data and reproducibility A study has found that many researchers do not comply with their… - Flowcharts
Suspected ethical problem in a submitted manuscript
…class="resource-download-inline__container"> Flowchart Suspected ethical problem in a submitted manuscript PDF 97 KB …