- Case
Licence for a published scale
…actions of the researcher and his enforcement of copyright on the tool. We are currently only publishing articles that have a license permitted by the scale’s developer because we do not want to be sued or have to retract the articles. Question(s) for the COPE Forum • How should we be handling cases where this scale is being used? • Should we be taking any action relating… - Seminars and webinars
Publication misconduct tools
…transparency and science both post-submission and post-acceptance stages. The hope is that it will lead to the need for fewer retractions by identifying high risk papers before they get to publication. Text analysis and plagiarism: AI a thought partner for humans Lee Gaul spoke on behalf of Copyleaks, where he is the Head of Enterprise Sales. Copyleaks is an AI platform which performs text… - Guidelines
Ethics toolkit for a successful editorial office
…discipline. Copyright and publishing licences must be clearly described, as well as any author or reader fees. Transparency of journal management is required including the business model, policies, processes, and software for the efficient running of the journal. Journals must describe how they manage post-publication debate and perform corrections and retractions. The… - Seminars and webinars
Webinar 2021: Diversity, equity and inclusion
… Back to top AUDIENCE POLLS Caroline Porter's session included interactive questions for the audience, using Mentimeter website for live updated answers. Have you had to retract or take other action on an offensive… - Case
Duplicate publication
Following COPE’s advice, the editor wrote a stern letter to the author, outlining the options considered at the COPE meeting (retraction of the paper, publishing an erratum, etc) but stating that it had been decided to take no further action. The author was told that a lack of openness can damage the trust between authors and editors. S/he was also told that the journal is considering changing… - Case
Scientist reads published paper by former collaborators and claims co-authorship
…acknowledgement section in a revised online version and of course in print. This permitted her not to be associated with the research. This was a rather surprising outcome but it kept everyone happy and we did not have to retract the paper, with all the unpleasant ensuing consequences.… - Case
Data source for study of questionable integrity and provenance
…several retractions involving some or all of the same authors. If innocent, the authors could readily give a satisfactory explanation. Other factors to consider in deciding how to proceed include whether a false declaration has been made on submission (eg, some journals ask all authors to confirm they had full access to all the data) as well as possible salami slicing. … - Case
Authorship order dispute
…communicate through e-mail or a third party legal representative. So far, our publications office has not communicated with Dr D—we have only been getting updates through Dr F as the corresponding author. We do not want to proceed with publication until these issues are resolved, at the risk of facing legal action or having to retract the paper. In any case, we would only move forward once we… - Case
Institutional investigation of authorship dispute
We received a claim that several authors were removed from an article published in one of our journals before the article was submitted. None of those said to have been removed were acknowledged. The claimant requested retraction. They said the article was previously submitted to other journals, listing them as an author. They provided what they said was an earlier version of the… - Case
An authorship dispute and a question about when a paper is considered published
…indemnified by the publisher. What is important here is the fact that the paper has been published, as it was published on the website. It also has a DOI number, which means that it is citable. COPE’s view is that it is wrong for a publisher to take a paper down from the website without due process (for example, a formal retraction). COPE would advise the publisher to put the paper back on the… - Case
Data manipulation and institute’s internal review
…being available for a period of time after the end of the research (usually about 5 years). Hence this a failure of the institution. This alone could be grounds to retract the paper or publish an Expression of Concern. If the editor is confident that there is a problem with the paper, and confident in the advice of their experts, then the journal should consider publishing an Expression of… - Seminars and webinars
Post-publication critiques
…co-founder of PubPeer, a not-for-profit website which allows readers and authors to comment on scholarly publications. Nick Wise is a researcher in fluid dynamics and an integrity ‘sleuth’ whose work has resulted in over 900 retractions. Peter Doshi is an associate professor of pharmaceutical health services research and leads the - Seminars and webinars
Handling a case of misconduct
This session brought together a publisher, a university research integrity officer, a journal editor, and the director of a national research integrity body to discuss the processes and challenges of handling a case of misconduct. This discussion is one of eleven sessions hosted by COPE during Pu… - Case
Authors referring readers to an objectionable version of an article on a preprint site
…would the journal enforce such a policy? Would the journal retract this commentary if the preprint was posted or discovered after publication? This is a complicated issue in that many preprint servers have virtually no standards for submission. The journal asks the appropriate question of the need to develop standards for authors with respect to their submission to preprint servers. - Case
Simultaneous submission without aiming at duplicate publication
…of deliberate dual submission. Journal B is not at fault as the authors did not make it clear that the paper was still under consideration at journal A. Dual submission in itself may not be sufficient reason for retraction, although it results in wasted time and resources for the journal and reviewers. Journal B should be allowed to re-instate the paper. But journal A should contact the… - Case
Requesting authorship after publication
To support a recommendation to publish a correction listing Dr H in an acknowledgment (not as an author), the editors sent the institution the following post from Retraction Watch, which describes a similar situation. The institution agreed with this… - Case
Service evaluation as research in a controversial area of medicine
…that ethical approval is not required under [the regional] research governance arrangements”. The author indicated that similar requests had been made in the past and that, due to the controversial area of the work, many attempts were being made to retract articles that used the data from the clinic. Attempting to prevent further queries, the author asked the institutional head of research to… - Seminars and webinars
Seminar 2021: Ethical practice in research data publication - challenges, lessons and opportunities
…issues of anonymity, offensive material including abuse and conspiracy theories, and standards around retractions, corrections and amendments to errorful, incomplete and inaccurate data. Research institution - Case
Professional misconduct of one author
…author needs to explain that to the journal. The institution may need to be asked to investigate in this case. If the complaining author can prove that the behaviour affected the research reported and has the confirmation of the institution, then the case would escalate to one of research misconduct and possible retraction of that paper. … - Case
Conflicts of interest between authors and editors
…appropriate Editor's or Publisher's Note if acceptance is upheld. Correction or retraction is also possible. If the occurrence of editor-authored articles, with editor-authors reviewing their own papers, is high, this would be a serious problem. Regarding the question about collaborations and working relationships in past papers (Question 2c), Council notes that the journal’s Checklist stipulates…