- Forum discussion topics
Publishing when English is not your first language
…language for reporting research, it can place unequal burdens on scholars from different backgrounds. Research has shown that it takes longer to prepare an article, book chapter, or conference paper in an additional language, it can be expensive to secure professional translation or editing services, and rejection rates are higher. In this Forum we share the voices of some of our members and other… - Case
Dual publication may be necessary in some situations
At a recent editorial board meeting it was suggested that in some disciplines straddling several specialties, transparent simultaneous publication might be necessary. It was suggested that this applies to sexually transmitted infections, and different readers may not have access to each other’s journals. For example, in a study of human papilloma virus epidemiologists, virologists, STD… - Case
Conflict of interest
After peer-review, a general medical journal published a household survey of violence following a coup against the country’s elected President. The survey revealed high levels of violence and human rights abuses, only a small minority of which were attributed to supporters of the deposed regime. The manuscript stated that none of the interviewers had political affiliations and the authors… - News
Conflicts of interest focus
…situations that have the potential to influence people’s judgements. Such situations may affect, or may be perceived to affect, every stage of research, from planning to applying for or allocating funding, conducting a study, interpreting data and reporting research. In publishing, conflicts of interest could influence peer review, editorial decisions and publication management. COPE’s resources relating… - Case
Submissions from institutions where misconduct has previously been suspected
…rogue researcher or an institutional problem with research governance. The failure to receive an adequate explanation may simply be a problem with contacting somebody in authority who can investigate the conduct of research within this department. It is however, difficult to believe that a co-author of a paper where misconduct almost certainly occurred was not aware of such behaviour.… - Case
Possible peer review manipulation
A journal received a complaint by one of the co-authors of an article submitted by a research team, stating that one of the reviewers suggested by the corresponding author sent an email to corresponding author asking them to tell them what comments they should insert in their review. In response, the corresponding author asked the co-authors to propose comments to be sent to the reviewer. One… Seminars
…misused)? — Euan Adie, Altmetric Download presentation [PDF, 2470kB] Research metrics: use and abuse — Lisa Colledge, Elsevier Download presentation [PDF, 1210kB] 2014 Presentations at COPE North American Seminar (APAME 2013 Tokyo
…Asia Pacific Association of Medical Journal Editors (APAME) in association with the Japanese Association of Medical Journal Editors joint (JAMJE) at the Japan Medical Association in Tokyo. The themes include responsible conduct of research, digital publishing trends and publication ethics. More details on the congress, including the programme, can be found here:- Event
ISMPP European Meeting 2018: COPE member discount
…for the Publications Professional• Panel session titled “Time to Embrace Change in Medical Publishing?” exploring innovative, new communication models in medical publishing• Panel session on Evolving Transparency Requirements in a Complex Multi-Stakeholder Environment• Parallel sessions, including Patient Involvement in Research and… - Case
Double plagiarism
A researcher has written to us to point out that a paper published in a German journal in 1993 was put together almost verbatim from articles published in the BMJ in 1989 and the New England Journal of Medicine in 1992. About three quarters of the material in the article in the German paper comes from these two journals. It may be that the data are original but it seems unlikely. What should… - Case
Conflicting claims of intellectual property?
Dr R, of University 1, has written an ‘official complain’ to Editor E alleging that a paper he was invited to review employs without permission a method that is the ‘background intellectual property’ (BIP) of University 1. He believes the paper should not be published. Dr R asserts that he created the BIP prior to its use in several research projects at University 1, and notes that Dr… - Case
Unethical private practice
This single author manuscript describes the treatment of 300 women with psychological problems. The women were randomised to either therapy or pharmacological intervention, and this study reports the relative effectiveness of these strategies. At submission, the manuscript did not contain any mention of ethics approval, consent or trial registration. When the author was queried on these… - Case
Two reviewer reports contain a significant amount of verbatim textual overlap
…therefore have similar ideas about what it takes to provide a good contribution in this field of research”. The other reviewer offered the following explanations: “[The other reviewer] and I have coauthored several papers … and, as a result, share many ideas about the ... literature; as a result of working together on several papers on the subject, we use the same perspective in assessing how… - Research
CrossCheck guidance: an analysis of typical cases of plagiarism in different disciplines 2010
…disciplines when using CrossCheck. For authors, these lists can act as an instruction for authors on plagiarism, from which they can learn more about plagiarism and CrossCheck, and know how to avoid being accused of plagiarism. This research project was proposed by Professor Yuehong (Helen) Zhang and Dr Xiaoyan JIA, and will be conducted by them and their team (editors: Hanfeng Lin, Ziyang Zhai,… - Event
COPE Lightning Talk: AI
…where personalised learning could become more prevalent. Nishchay is the CTO and head of the AI powered products business at Cactus Communications. With a strong background in AI and its applications, Nishchay plays a pivotal role in driving the company's technological strategy and product development, focusing on leveraging artificial intelligence to build products that help move research… - Guidelines
Ethics toolkit for a successful editorial office
…requirements for authorship and contributorship. Peer review processes, including what is peer reviewed, what model of peer review is used and how the process is managed must be transparent. Journals must have processes in place to respond to allegations of research, publication, and review misconduct whether before or after publication. Journals should clearly describe definitions… - Case
Permission to publish a case report
…literature, but even before that, we must strive to minimize harm. For that reason, we insist that all research on human subjects be approved by an appropriately constituted institutional review board, and that separate permission needs to be sought for publication in cases where details of individuals are to be published. There seems to be no evidence of this here. The head of a hospital unit, Dr Y, is not… - News
COPE workshop August 2019: Santiago, Chile
On August 29, the IV Scientific Editor’s Forum was held at the Universidad de Los Lagos, in Santiago, Chile. Over 100 editors mainly from social sciences, arts and humanities attended for a two-day meeting on publishing and editorial standards. COPE held a workshop that was facilitated by Vivienne C. Bachelet (editor-in-chief of Medwave and… How COPE will respond to a media enquiry
…educate and support editors, publishers, universities, research institutes, and others involved in publication ethics, with the aim of moving the culture of publishing towards one where ethical practices become the norm. Our approach is firmly in the direction of influencing through education, guidance and support of our members alongside the fostering of professional debate in the wider community.