- Case
Compromise of patient confidentiality?
…the other two cases were discussed. If the editor publishes this paper, the identity of the other two cases might be revealed if he respects the wishes of the parents. What does COPE advise?… - Case
Anonymous case presentations (without patient consent) on a specialist society website
A specialist society wishes to post “case of the month” on the society website. The society is not proposing to obtain patient consent from all patients, but will anonymise the case reports instead. It has been suggested a case might be anonymised by changing details including age, occupation, or gender. It has also suggested that there is often much to learn from patients who have died, from… - Event
Open Access and Medical Publishing: ISMPP
ISMPP invites COPE members to attend a special 90-minute ISMPP U educational webinar, Open Access and Medical Publishing, on Wednesday, January 30, at 11 am EST/4 pm in the UK. The webinar is open to all and free to COPE members. Expert speakers representing different stakeholder views – industry (Shire), funder (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), publisher (Wiley and American… - Case
Surprising results and a new area of research
A paper described an unusual approach to disease modulation in an experimental animal model. The apparently clear cut findings were somewhat surprising. The authors also seem to have used high and low power photomicrographs of the same tissue sections to illustrate completely different experiments within the study. This occurred twice in the paper. Furthermore, this particular area of study was… - Event
COPE Forum: 6 May 2016
The May COPE Forum will be held on Friday 6 May 2016, 8am to 9.30am (British Summer Time). The COPE Forum will be held virtually via webinar.… - Forum discussion topics
Artificial intelligence (AI) and fake papers
…topic. Back to top Questions for discussion 1) Is it an acceptable, and ethical, practice for an author to use AI to write a scholarly article? 2) Can we detect whether an article has been written by AI? Is it important to do so? If so, why? 3) Can an article written by an AI trained on existing articles be considered original? 4) What… - News
Attention COPE members! Changes to the website
The COPE website is undergoing a redesign which involves moving the members database. While this is ongoing, members will not be able to change their details on the website. Members will be able to continue using the website, browsing all the content. Members will also be able to login and submit cases, but will not be able to change their personal details or the details of the journal.… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: April 2020
COPE, like many organisations, is grappling with the impact of the coronavirus. There is worldwide concern over COVID-19 and its impact on our daily lives, both personal and professional. Journal editors may be unsure of what to do in this unprecedented situation. How is COVID-19 affecting editors and publishers? Circumstances will differ for different regions, disciplines, journals and… EASE/ISMTE joint meeting
COPE will be holding an interactive workshop at the joint meeting of the European Association of Science Editors (EASE) and the International Society of Managing and Technical Editors (ISMTE). In this workshop, a number of cases based on real-life examples brought to COPE, and covering some of the most pressing problems currently faced by editors and journals, will be discussed. Co-Secretary…- News
Case discussion: Authors’ contributions and involvement by medical communications company
Case Summary Case 14-07 Authors' contributions and involvement by medical communications company An employee of a medical communications company contacted a journal’s editorial office. For several manuscripts, the employee had helped develop the… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: August 2019
…members. While this a small sample we hope you will be interested in the findings. Currently, we are underrepresented by members in AHSS disciplines. COPE will grow our membership within these disciplines as we strive to meet the specific issues in publication ethics in these fields. We would like to remind you of the upcoming - Case
Academic freedom
A final year student, and two other researchers in law, all from the same university, undertook research into a recent court judgment on the rules in relation to civil servants making public comments. Based on this research, a manuscript was drafted to be submitted to a double anonymised peer reviewed journal. The manuscript is highly critical of the judgment’s reasoning and impact. All three… - News
Research integrity and how to buy a Persian carpet: TOP Guidelines, part 2
…Picture by Garry Knight (Flickr: Persian Carpet) CC BY-SA 2.0 at http://bit.ly/2FKpQCo In “The art of buying a carpet,” Simon Busch suggests that a wise carpet buyer checks a carpet’s knot count (“You will find much truth under the carpet: turn it… - Case
Citing a retracted paper
…have submitted a manuscript and the associate editor has noticed that one of the references (which they happen to be an author on) has since been retracted. They are presumably asking whether a paper citing a retracted paper is to be considered sound? We think this should be a question for the peer reviewers. Perhaps, as a responsible editor, they should point out to the reviewers that one of the… - Event
COPE Forum: Thursday 3 March 2022
…Forum agenda On 3 March 2022 the COPE Forum will be held at 11:00-12:30pm (GMT / UTC) 1. Update on COPE activities by the Chair. 2. Forum discussion topic. We begin the COPE Forum with a discussion on the topic of Editorial conflicts of interest. 3. New… - Event
COPE Forum: 9 December 2014
COPE's December Forum will be on Tuesday, 9 December 2014 at 9am (GMT). The Forum will be by Webinar. Click here for full details.… - Event
Medical Journal Editors: Short Course 2019
This international workshop (in its 23rd year) is designed to help editors ensure their journals achieve the maximum impact with the best research. The programme looks at the world of publishing, attracting (and keeping) good authors; ensuring quality and increasing… - Forum discussion topics
Claiming institutional affiliations
…rarely provide guidance or standards on the definition of “deserving” affiliations or the number of affiliations per author on a publication. Multiple undeserved affiliations may be considered as research malpractice and may affect different stakeholders and the integrity of the published record. During this Forum we will engage in a discussion on “institutional authorship” – the definition of… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: December 2021
…="https://www.elsevier.com/connect/reviewers-update/the-case-for-more-diversity-in-peer-review">Elsevier making the case for more diversity in peer review, and others. I hope you find this issue of COPE Digest interesting and informative, and that you go into 2022 with a renewed drive to continue to improve diversity and inclusivity in scholarly publications.