- News
Guest editorial: Data availability statements
…Biostatistics, Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA [2]Department of Biostatistics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, USA [3]Arkansas Children's Research Institute, Little Rock, AR, USA *Correspondence: David B. Allison; [email protected] Indiana University… - Case
Possible fabricated data: a conspiracy of silence?
…I have written to the National Committee on Ethics in Research in the author’s country but have had no reply. An international expert on the statistical detection of fraud is currently looking at the papers. He has some concerns but his investigation is ongoing. Dr X was a prolific researcher with about 16 of his own first authored papers cited in his clinical trial reports. It appears that many… - Case
Authorship dispute
…transfer of biological material and data sharing in this case of collaborative research. The paper cannot “disappear” from PubMed, but at this point, most agreed that an “Expression of Concern” should be issued immediately and the editors need to investigate further the issues of (1) patient consent, (2) overlapping content and (3) the roles of each author on both manuscripts. Institutional input… - Case
New claim to authorship of published paper
In October 2011, our journal received a submission from author A with co-authors B, C and D. After review and revision it was published in mid-2012. In April 2013 we received a complaint from author X, saying that the work published in this paper was his work, and that although author A had been his research supervisor at the time the work was done, authors B, C and D had either little or no… - Case
Scientific misconduct claim from a whistleblower where the institution will not investigate
A journal received an allegation of scientific misconduct from an anonymous individual stating they were from the group that had written the paper (Institution-1, there are two institutions involved in this research). The email stated that the scientific bases of the article were unreliable. The paper was currently with the authors who were revising the paper after the first round of review,… Artificial intelligence (AI) in decision making: Forum discussion topic November 2019
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has advanced steadily over the past several years, and has started to introduce data-driven solutions to many processes throughout the publication process. AI tools can be developed to provide guidance to humans based on relevant data, or AI may lend toward automation of some processes without human intervention. Some processes already being considered…- Case
Withdrawal of acceptance based on potentially unconsented data
…submission". The journal guidelines state that the journal has "the right to withdraw acceptance at any time before publishing, in exceptional circumstances", and also that "Informed consent to participate in the study should be obtained from participants (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children under 16) for all research involving human subjects". The authors are arguing that their letters… - News
New: Chinese resources
…authorship practice Identifying authorship: how hard can it be? Mark Israel, Australasian Human Research Ethics Consultancy Services Chinese presentation English presentation Session 2 What we… Revised principles of transparency and best practice released
…href="http://publicationethics.org/">Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) is a membership organisation committed to educating and supporting editors, publishers, universities, research institutes and all involved in publication ethics. COPE aims to move the culture of publishing towards one where ethical practices become a regular part of the culture itself. Our approach is firmly in the direction of influencing through…- Case
The ethics of drug/medication use evaluation audit cycles and publication of the results
…actually a research study examining the behavioural effect of an educational intervention on hospital staff, and as such does require ethics committee consideration, approval and possibly individual participant (staff) consent?… FORUM DISCUSSION TOPIC: How should a journal deal with persistent complainers?
…editor-in-chief. Other complaints are about publications. We have seen one complaint that alleges plagiarism, but evidence presented consisted only of common English phrases like “…has been proven to”, “In previous research, we observed that…”. There are also authors that insist repeatedly on a journal publishing comments to earlier comments, and do not accept that a certain topic has been closed. In…COPE Membership Handbook
…COPE members COPE members are part of a community that is helping to create a future where ethical practice in scholarly publication is the cultural norm. The COPE Membership Handbook is a guide, for new and existing members of COPE, to the benefits of being a COPE member, how to make the most of membership, and how to uphold the highest ethical standards in research publishing.- Case
Living unrelated (commercial) organ transplant
A paper submitted for publication describes a series of children with renal failure who had had kidneys transplanted from commercially acquired donors. The authors of the paper had not carried out the transplants. Indeed, they had been carried out in another country. The authors simply reported what happened to the patients after they returned. The paper, while not of high priority for publicat… - News
Case Discussion: Lack of trial registration leads to new concerns about study conduct and ethical review/approval
…Discussion This archived COPE Forum case is complex, and is categorised under several COPE Core Practices, which will be dealt with in turn below. Human research ethics and complete reporting A key COPE Core Practice in this case is Ethical Oversight, which states: “Ethical… - News
Peer Review Week 2018: new and revised COPE resources
…width="560"> Listen to our podcast of an interview conducted by Charon Pierson, Secretary of COPE, with Professor Andy Hor, Vice President of Research at Hong Kong University. This podcast explores some of the formal and informal ways that institutions contribute to diversity in the pool of peer reviewers by admitting a global… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: July 2019
…manipulation. When it was first discussed, the identification of citation manipulation came as an element within the general rise in publication ethics standards that emerged consistent with the establishment of organizations like COPE, whose purpose is the education and advancement of research integrity and publication ethics. There was a long established practice in many fields where the citation of… - Case
Incorrect allegations from the head of an institute?
After a number of appeals and revisions, and having satisfied ourselves about the results being “too good to be true”, we eventually accepted a paper. In September 2007, we received a letter from the head of the institute (and also a member of the university ethics committee) expressing concern about the paper. The allegations were: the funding source could not be that acknowledged; the authors… - Case
Editor as author
…decisions about it. Some journals list editors’ competing interests on their website, but this is not a standard practice. Readers should refer to the WAME Policy on the Relationship Between Journal Editors-in-chief and Owners for additional comment about COI as it relates to editors.' Researchers in healthcare research have shifted their thoughts about patients as partners in research over the… - Guidelines
Sharing of information among editors-in-chief regarding possible misconduct
…the subject. It was initiated in the wake of a number of high-profile cases of research misconduct in which the sharing of information between the relevant EiCs was crucial to the final settlement of the cases. Sharing of information among editors-in-chief regarding…