- Case
Query regarding a retraction
A journal published a paper. Some months later, the author asked if they could change the contents of the paper. The Editor in Chief had some concerns with respect to some of the results and could not come to an agreement with the author. The author then requested withdrawal of this paper and asked that it be removed from the database. The author also accused the journal of being unethical. - Flowcharts
All Flowcharts
…office updated 2022 Systematic manipulation of the publication process, updated 2022 Addressing concerns about systematic manipulation of the publication process new 2023 Peer… - News
Case discussion: Editing peer review comments
…transparent about what comments could be shared (and although not stated, stick to those policies). There was no COPE comment regarding editing of the reviewer comments. In 2011 case 11-22, the corresponding author requested that her or his co-authors be restricted from seeing the reviewer comments directly due to… - Case
Publication of data without permission
A director of an institute in France has expressed concern about a paper published in our journal. One of the authors (not the corresponding author) of the paper, person A, visited his laboratory in France for 5 months in 2009 to carry out some work. The director says that some methods used and results obtained in his laboratory have now been included in the paper without his knowledge or permi… - Case
Withdrawal of accepted manuscript from predatory journal
Our journal has been contacted by an author who would like to submit a review article. The author responded to a request for an invited review from a predatory journal without realizing it was a predatory journal. The author submitted the article only to receive an unexpected invoice and clear evidence of no peer review. The author investigated the journal and then realized the predatory nature… - Case
Submissions from members of the editorial board
Our journal has decided that members of the editorial board are allowed to submit manuscripts which will undergo peer-review directed by the present or former editor-in-chief. It can be difficult, and I would like to present one example. A group of authors (including one member of the editorial board) submitted five manuscripts during a period of 17 days. The handling of some manuscripts… - News
Letter from the COPE co-Chairs: April 2019
…What we’ve learned: Reflections at the end of our term as COPE Co-Chairs Image credit: CC-BY-SA-3.0-migrated Jerry Segraves-jerrysfoto.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue-reflect.jpg We often reflect… Job vacancy: COPE content writer
…Council. The successful candidate should also be detail oriented and committed to meeting tight deadlines. Preference will be given to those with a strong writing portfolio and relevant work experience. This is a freelance role of up to 15 hours per month. Pay = £30 per hour. COPE is a virtual organisation and the role is based from home. Most meetings are conducted virtually but expenses will be…- Case
A falling out
A research letter was submitted from a team of investigators,A, B, C, and D. In their covering letter they reported that: A was involved in planning the study, collecting patient samples, and in writing the manuscript; B measured IL-10 polymorphisms and analysed the results; C was involved in supervising the measurement of polymorphisms and in writing the manuscript; D was involved in planning… - Case
Retraction of the first article in the case of duplicate publication
Earlier this year it came to our attention that a published article in our journal (journal A) had also been published in another journal (journal B). The article in journal A was published later than the article in journal B, so following COPE guidelines on duplicate publication, we contacted the authors for an explanation. Their response was to blame the editor of journal B for publishing the… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: December 2020
…Academy, and STM–the International Association of Scientific,Technical, and Medical Publishers). The sessions involved around 30 representatives from academic, library, publishing industry, research, and open science backgrounds, discussing initiatives, technology, and perspectives that would support and coordinate healthy and productive peer review. We will share the report with you when it is issued by… - Case
Serial plagiarism by an experienced author
…similarity index of less than 30%. Over 12% have a similarity index in excess of 40%—the level at which iThenticate gives a plagiarism alert. Excluding the eight submissions from Dr J, there were 9% falling into this category. The remaining 16% fall in the range 30–39% and have been investigated. In all of these cases, the overlap was in acceptable quotations and in the bibliography and no further action… - Forum discussion topics
Predatory publishing: next steps and where do we go from here?
…alt="" src="/files/u7140/kelly_cobey_-_1.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 1px 3px; max-width: 100%; width: 120px; height: 81px;" /> Presentation by Kelly Cobey, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute Developing a digital authenticator tool… - News
Tackling the problem of paper mills
…virtual) Academic Publishing Europe Conference. The session, “The Version of Record under Attack! The Dark Side of the Scholarly Publishing Universe”, was chaired by Dr Liz Marchant (Taylor & Francis). The session had presentations from two editors of scholarly journals, Professor Dr Christian Behl and Professor Dr Bernhard Sabel, and from Tim Kersjes, a Research… Cookie policy
…COPE protects any personal information you provide to us. The policy also describes how to get in touch with us if you have any questions or concerns. Related content All COPE policies Page history Last updated 11 April 2022 Back to…- Event
COPE webinar: managing paper mills
…top Related resources Paper mills: authorship for sale COPE Seminar 2021 Systematic manipulation of the publication process, COPE guidance, updated 2022 - Case
Can a published journal article be submitted to conferences?
An article is submitted to a journal and accepted for future publication. The authors receive the acceptance letter and the script is waiting for the final publication process (within 4-6 months). During this time the authors ask the journal if they can present the full text of the article at a conference (which is going to be held before the publication by the journal). They also declar… - Flowcharts
Addressing concerns about systematic manipulation of the publication process
…="https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts/systematic-manipulation-publication-process">Systematic manipulation of the publication process flowcharts Managing paper mills COPE seminar, September 2022 How do we deal with the growing problem of paper mill - Seminars and webinars
Post-publication corrections
…misconduct JAMA Network article Handling difficult cases a discussion on PLOS Blog Related COPE resources Dealing with concerns about the integrity of… - News
Upcoming CrossRef webinars
…8:00 am (San Francisco), 11:00 am (New York), 4:00 pm (London)Moderator: Rachael LammeyRegistration Date: Thursday, July 11, 2013Time: 8:00 am (San Francisco), 11:00 am (New York), 4:00 pm…