- Flowcharts
Addressing concerns about systematic manipulation of the publication process
…Practical guidance COPE addresses four areas of concern where editors and publishers need further guidance: how to deal with the practical and administrative burden of collecting the evidence; how to provide timely due process that considers the batch assessment, while also considering the resource impacts and constraints for journals/publishers; the scope of and mechanisms for informa… - Case
Possible image manipulation
A whistleblower posted on PubPeer regarding some apparently overlapping images in an article published several years earlier. To the research integrity team there appeared similarities, enough to warrant a request for the original images / raw data from the authors. The authors said they no longer had access to the original data and have denied any editing was made to the images. We commissione… - Seminars and webinars
Post-publication corrections
This discussion panel features Elizabeth Moylan (Senior Manager, Research Integrity Strategy & Policy at Wiley), Mark Hooper (Manager, Research Ethics and Integrity at the Queensland University of Technology), and Jennifer Byrne (publication integrity ‘sleuth’ and the University of Sydney), talking about dealing with issues that arise after publication has taken p… - Discussion documents
Dealing with concerns about the integrity of published research
This guidance presents practical considerations for managing scenarios where editors are contacted with ethical concerns about the integrity of published research. In recent years, reporting of ethical concerns about research publications has become more prevalent, and the issues identified have become more complex. This includes situations where multiple concerns are raised simultaneous… - Case
Dual submission
Paper 1 was submitted to journal A. The paper dealt with monitoring of a chemical element in various occupations in a range of workplaces. Samples were taken from the workplace air and bodily fluids of the workers, and conclusions were drawn about what metabolite should be measured in order to estimate a worker’s dose of the element. The chosen reviewers were experts in relevant biological moni… - Case
Ethical concerns and the validity of documentation supplied by the authors
We became concerned that not all of the co-authors were aware of a research paper submitted to our journal due to the difficulty receiving responses from the email addresses that had been supplied and their nature, given that the authors all worked in a hospital/academic institution. Despite repeated requests and attempts we remained dissatisfied with the responses and did not feel certain that… - Case
Author alleges discrimination by institutional report
In 2020, the corresponding author of an article published online three years previously notified the journal of an authorship conflict and explained that the institution was requesting retraction. Because authorship conflict does not typically warrant retraction, the publisher requested further details from the author and the author's institution about the conflict. The author provided two… - News
In the news: March Digest
…Authorship A recent survey published in PLOS One of 6000 of the top cited authors examined how authorship is assigned, and what input was valued by the authors. The results demonstrate that people value activities beyond writing and analyzing data but the opinions are polarized. Education
…misconduct. The programme will cover plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, redundant publication, selective reporting, unethical research, authorship, reviewer misconduct, responsibilities of editors and conflicts of interest. The course will use the COPE database of cases and the flowcharts, and will provide links to other relevant resources and organisations. The first modules will be…- Event
CSM 2020: Scientific publication, get to the next level
Rachel Safer, COPE Council, is speaking at The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) annual meeting at the session on publication ethics. This is what you can expect from the session: Ever feel like scientific publishing is a Mario Bros video game? In publication ethics, there are such hazards as conflicts of interest, authorship disputes, and self-plagiarism. In clinical… - Event
Society for Scholarly Publishing annual meeting
…they allow participants to explore how to they define, promote and reinforce publication ethics standards. Topics of focus will include: Plagiarism, including self-plagiarism Hoax articles Promoting equity and inclusion Authorship and AI … - Seminars and webinars
North American Seminar 2019: Women also know history
Karin Wulf, Professor of History and well-known “Chef” in the Scholarly Kitchen introduced us to the terms “manels” and “whanels” (all male panels and all white panels) and provided some suggestions to help identify a more diverse group of experts from which to draw authors, reviewers, editorial board memb… - Forum discussion topics
Systematic manipulation of the publishing process via “paper mills”
…Paper mills are profit oriented, unofficial and potentially illegal organisations that produce and sell fraudulent manuscripts that seem to resemble genuine research. They may also handle the administration of submitting the article to journals for review and sell authorship to researchers once the article is accepted for publication. Indications that manuscripts may be produced by a paper mill are… - Event
COPE Forum: July 2023
…issue 4. Updates to cases Authorship dispute involving a commercial institution Article published at two journals after withdrawal from first journal - Event
COPE Forum: December 2023
…="https://publicationethics.org/resources/forum-discussion-topics/claiming-university-affiliations">Claiming institutional affiliations. 3. New cases Cases submitted by COPE Members for discussion at the Forum. How to handle offers of promotion of authorship for sale S - Case
Author retracts request to be removed from author list
…href="https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines">Retraction Guidelines states that: 'Authors sometimes request that articles are retracted when authorship is disputed after publication. If there is no reason to doubt the validity of the findings or the reliability of the data, it is not appropriate to retract a publication solely on the grounds of an authorship dispute. In such cases, the editor should inform those involved in the dispute that… - Case
Using the name of a scientific society inappropriately
…If it is not already required, a complete disclosure statement about authorship and affiliations should be in place. There are always differences in interpretation between the "positions" that societies take on clinical issues and a good reviewer who is also a practicing clinician would likely identify those differences. So, rounding out the review panel for something that has such long-term impact… - Flowcharts
Chinese: all flowcharts
…This is COPE's flowcharts in Chinese For the latest version (English language) of this guidance visit https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.2.26. Other languages: Arabic | - Flowcharts
Croatian: all flowcharts
…This is COPE's flowcharts in Croatian For the latest version (English language) of this guidance visit https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.2.26. Other languages: Arabic | - Flowcharts
French: all flowcharts
…This is COPE's flowcharts in French. For the latest version (English language) of this guidance visit https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.2.26. Other languages: Arabic |