COPE webinar: Understanding text recycling
…wondered if I was wasting my time by doing that extra manipulation, but it felt odd to just put the same text in multiple documents. At the same time, we do often have to say the same thing and starting from scratch every time feels like a waste too.” Professor of Economics Text recycling, also known as self-plagiarism, is a common practice in research…- Case
Questionable authorship information
…key concern is that the paper contains incorrect authorship information which has been manipulated to enhance its prospects of being published. Also, it is too commercial in its content, and despite authors disclosing their conflicting interests the paper may be harmful to the journal's reputation if published. Normally papers like this are rejected prior to peer review commencing and in… - News
Case Discussion: Data fabrication in a rejected manuscript
…declarations that data were obtained and used ethically and legally and that authors themselves had full access to the data during analysis and manuscript preparation. If an editor or reviewer has suspicions that data in a submitted paper are too good to be true or an illustration has been manipulated, raw data files or data sources may need to be inspected to verify analyses and data integrity. Data… - News
In the news: December 2020
…to knowledge that is only published in non-English journals. Such papers are often not included in systematic reviews, or cited in other ways. Several alternatives are suggested, including steps that universities, publishers and researchers can take. Research integrity DeMing Chau describes how he and other members of the Young Scientists Network - Academy of Sciences Malaysia have… - Case
Possible fabricated data: a conspiracy of silence?
I became involved in this issue after reports from doctors in a developing country that three papers in a systematic review published by my company may have been fabricated. The papers in question had co-authors in two other countries and so I contacted them. One co-author replied that he had concerns, but as none of the studies was conducted in his country, he had no data. He… - News
When the peer review process goes sideways
…favorable reviews. This manipulation of the peer review process is egregious and potentially criminal. The author admitted fraud, raising concerns about other papers she or he had submitted. The case provides a strong cautionary tale for editors regarding selecting reviewers as well. Reviewers Reviewers have the ethical duty to decline to review a paper… - Case
Data fabrication, lack of ethical approval, withdrawal of paper and publication in another journal
This query refers to a clinical trial comparing two forms of treatment which has since been published in another journal. I originally received this manuscript in 2009. One of the referees alerted me to the fact that the data looked strange. Furthermore, the test and controls groups were perfectly distributed, which is almost impossible. Along with the usual requests for modifications, I… - Forum discussion topics
Best practices for guest edited collections
…special issue and oversee the peer review process. The increase in guest-edited article collections has raised concerns about the quality of content in these issues, the peer review processes undertaken, the sometimes-indiscriminate marketing to academics, and the susceptibility of these initiatives to organised fraud (e.g. peer review manipulation, falsification of review, lack of oversight… - News
In the news: August 2018 Digest
…href="https://mailchi.mp/publicationethics/citation-manipulation-cope-digest-august-2018" target="_blank">Read August 2018 Digest: Citation Manipulation… - News
In the news: October Digest
…the Center for Open Science (COS). They report changes in their editorial practices, especially with respect to image manipulation, that resulted from these two audits. https://blog.f1000.com/2019/09/02/f1000research-how-do-we-cope/ The Information for Authors of 835 journals across… - News
In the news: February 2021
…thought to have come from paper mills, based on duplicated and manipulate images and a common writing template. Covid-19 2020 saw a sharp increase in articles on all subjects being submitted to scientific journals. The changes in science publishing were seen in the speed of review, the number of preprints… - Case
Mislabelling/duplicate images
We were contacted by a reader who told us that he had spotted a number of cases of image duplication and mislabelling of fluorescent tags that had occurred over the past 4 years. These involved two papers published in our journal, and two other papers published in two different journals. The two papers in our journal were both reviews, and the one that had the most occurrences involved a poster… - Case
Possible violation of the Helsinki Declaration on Scientific Research with Humans
…testing. The reviewer believes that this study violates the Helsinki Declaration on Scientific Research with Humans in that it appears that subjects randomly included in the third experimental group were subjected to an experimental condition that caused three of them to be severely disabled, and nine of them to be moderately disabled by the experimental manipulation. Because patients were assigned to… - Forum discussion topics
Peer review models
…publications. The peer review process is showing signs of strain. A growing shortage of skilled reviewers, organised fraud in the form of peer review rings, fake papers and manipulated results, and new challenges brought on by new AI tools and large language models, all pose threats to the integrity of the process. During this Forum we will engage in a lively discussion on peer review, exploring… - Case
Multiple complainants for a single article
…article and said that they would like to publish an Erratum. Before we could reply to complainant A we received a similar letter from complainant B. As there was no evidence of academic conduct, we conveyed the author’s explanation to complainant A and B but both complainants raised more concerns regarding potential manipulation of data. We then asked the author to provide all original… - News
In the news: July 2021
…by Cochrane as “any published or unpublished study where there are serious questions about the trustworthiness of the data or findings, regardless of whether the study has been formally retracted” may be included in systematic reviews. In order to guide authors of such reviews about how to handle such papers, - News
In the news: January 2018 Digest
…src="/files/u7140/PLOS.png" style="float: right; margin: 3px; width: 100px; height: 29px;" />Especially when intense competition for journal space and research funding can encourage authorship and citation manipulation. Who are the culprits, and why do they do it? - News
In the news: January 2019 Digest
…target="_blank">January 2019 COPE Digest newsletter and use the COPE Audit Tool, read a case discussion on citation manipulation, get dates in the diary for COPE events in 2019, and keep abreast of news & events in #PublicationEthics… - Case
Author requests for certain experts not to be included in the editorial process
…certain experts not to be involved in reviewing their paper?” is yes—the author is entitled to make this request, but the editor does not have to feel bound to exclude specific reviewers. Otherwise there is potential manipulation of the peer review system by the author. The author should give reasons for his requests. Some noted that it depends on how many experts the author asks not to be involved in…