- Case
Exposing citation manipulation and fraud in the community
A publisher has identified a ring of three individuals who acted as guest editors for three special issues. These individuals used nine fake accounts to peer review manuscripts. For some manuscripts, the fake identities were used alongside legitimate reviewers, while in other cases they were used exclusively. The publisher has also identified several submissions to those special issues where th… Membership: universities and research institutes
COPE announced the launch of membership for selected universities and research institutes in May 2022. An initial group of universities and research institutes have joined as members and will help ensure that the dedicated resources provide the appropriate support and guidance that universities and research institutes need: Aston University |- Flowcharts
Systematic manipulation of the publication process
…process COPE guidance 2023 Paper mills research report COPE & STM, 2022 How to recognise potential manipulation of the peer review process COPE infographic - News
Letter from the COPE co-Chairs: July 2018
…3px; margin-right: 3px; float: left;" /> Disclosure: CG works for Wiley, where he is Director, Research Integrity and Publishing EthicsPicture credit: CC0 Creative Commons from - Case
A case of scientific misconduct?
…authors wrote back to us, cc'ing the heads of their two research ethics committees, to say that indeed, the manuscript did not match the two different protocols they sent us. They explained that there was a fault in the manuscript and not in the work carried out. They explained that the paper they sent us did not describe a single study but rather parts of 4 different approved studies taking place over… - Seminars and webinars
Webinar 2022: Managing paper mills
…evaluation. An example of this was discussed on Retraction Watch this week. What is the most effective identifier of a paper mill [from the list cited in Renee Hoch’s talk]? I encourage editors evaluating articles for paper mill concerns to take… Presentations
…href="/files/u661/COPE_GENERIC_SLIDES_12April10.pdf">Download PDF (1 mb) (uploaded 5 May 2010) Presented by Liz Wager 2008 Communication and Scientific Integrity- News
Case Discussion: Possible plagiarism
…sloppiness. The practice of citing with either quoting or paraphrasing is also the etiquette expected when copyright permission is not required, including use of material that is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence and material in the public domain (CC 0). The need for sound infrastructure and clear policies and processes in the editorial office is covered in the COPE - Case
Dealing with cases with culturally offensive content
…The Forum agreed that further guidelines will be useful. The forthcoming COPE guidelines will address some of the issues reviewed here and other resources can be found below: Simone Ragavooloo, Helen Macdonald and Kamran Abbasi, ‘Acting on historically offensive content in BMJ’s archive’, BMJ 2022; 378:o1829 doi… - News
Case Discussion: Editor and reviewers requiring authors to cite their own work
…discussion document which will be ready, on our website, early this year. Nancy Chescheir on behalf of the COPE Education Subcommittee Read January 2019 COPE Digest newsletter and use the COPE… FORUM DISCUSSION TOPIC: comments please
…(HRA) holds firmly to the view that health research should undergo independent ethical review. Audit, service evaluation and public health surveillance, usually of minimal risk, are excluded under official policy (GAfREC 2.3.12- Webform
COPE integrity workshop 2021
…(BST), 11:00-12:30 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)--> COPE is delighted to announce an online workshop which looks at the lessons that can be learnt from issues of concern raised to COPE's Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee. At the workshop we will: discuss the framework within which the Facilitation and… - Case
Plagiarism in a case report
I received a phone call from the first Author (A) of a case report published in our journal in 2005, who informed us that he had received a letter from an Author (B) of a research letter which had been published in another journal in 2000, stating that 12–15 sentences from the research letter had been copied in the case report. Having compared the papers, about… - Case
The ethics of using privileged information
A paper published in one of our journals (paper A) provoked the submission of a correspondence article claiming that a minor conclusion of the paper was a misinterpretation and erroneous. The point in contention was a question of zoomorphology and our paper’s conclusions were based on analysis using a non-invasive technique while the rebuttal relied on more traditional techniques. We are bringi… - Case
Retract, correct, or both?
Like many journals, we do not collect actual signatures of each co-author, asking the corresponding author to declare on a form that, among other things, he/she has the authority to submit on behalf of the others A paper was published in our journal in April 2010. Shortly afterwards, we were contacted by one of the authors saying that he and his colleagues had been unaware of the existen… - Case
Retractions of primary literature papers: how should a review journal react?
In a recent and very prominent case of publication misconduct resulting in the retraction of 12 research papers (to date), many journals have been included in ‘round-mails’ from the whistleblower and other scientists. Our journal (a reviews and features journal) has published a review from the main author associated with the misconduct, which contains reference to six of the retracted… - 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
Extensive publication errors. Should we 're-publish'?
In March 2012, our journal published a posthumous excerpt of a book by a prestigious scholar, who had died before completing the book. We chose to publish because the unfinished book represented the scholar's life work, and would not find another publication venue. The excerpt included a number of large figures, which we also published. At our publisher, we had a new production team, and… - Case
Concerns about the reliability of findings following re-analysis of a dataset from a published article
Following publication of an article, a reader posted a comment raising some questions about the data analysis in the study and the availability of the dataset. We followed-up with the authors and they offered to share the dataset with the reader—the dataset involves genetic information from potentially identifiable patients and as a result the authors indicated that the deposition of the data w…