- Case
Inadequate assurance of human research ethics for a questionnaire
A questionnaire was distributed to knowledge workers in an organisation to investigate the following hypotheses: — H1.There is a positive and significant relationship between ethics and organizational performance.— H2. There is a positive and significant relationship between ethics and intellectual capital.— H3. There is a positive and significant relationship between intelle… - Case
A case with no independent institution to investigate
…an institutional investigation. However, in the absence of an independent institution that we could ask to investigate, we are seeking advice from the forum on how to proceed once we receive author B's explanation. Question(s) for the COPE Forum (1) In the absence of an independent institution, how do the Forum suggest we proceed once we receive… - Research
CrossCheck guidance: an analysis of typical cases of plagiarism in different disciplines 2010
…JZUS-A/B & FITEE. Journal of Zhejiang University-SCIENCE A (Appl Phys & Eng) 2015;16(6):507–12. http://www.zju.edu.cn/jzus/download/Policy_new.pdf Helen Zhang, has published a book, Against Plagiarism. The book is based on work that… - Case
Author impersonating corresponding author without knowledge of coauthors
We received an article which was accepted and published after an uneventful peer review process. The article was apparently written by seven authors from two universities. As part of our routine processes, all co-authors were alerted to a submission via the email addresses provided by the submitting author. Some time after the article had been published, we received an email from the cor… - Forum discussion topics
COPE Forum 8 July 2014: ethical review
…remit of Research Ethics Committees (RECs) is the consideration of research, and the Health Research Authority (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 - News
Artificial intelligence and authorship
…users have pointed to examples where ChatGPT has misattributed or fabricated citations suggesting that its training data leans towards a fairly free and easy attitude to plagiarism. On the other hand, as it learns on more refined sets of… - Case
Temporary exception to double anonymised review policy
The journal conducts double-anonymous reviews of all manuscripts submitted. As part of the decision process, reviewers routinely receive a copy of the decision letter, which includes reviewers’ comments. In the transition to a new editorial staff, a change to the email template inadvertently meant that the full letter was sent out, including the corresponding author’s name. Before this was disc… - News
In the news: March 2018 Digest
…height: 28px; margin-top: 3px; margin-bottom: 3px; float: right;" />A US court has required a publisher to breach its confidentiality policy and identify an article's anonymous peer reviewers.http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/01/unusual… COPE webinar: Diversity, equity and inclusion
…Diversity, equity and inclusion in scholarly research and publishing Friday 28 May 2021, 13:00-14:30 (British Summer Time) (UTC + 1) Find out what time this is in your country Thanks to everyone who attended the webinar. The- News
In the news: March Digest
…science - in an effort to decolonise science communication.https://www.theopennotebook.com/2019/02/12/decolonizing-science-writing-in-south-africa Data management The people behind Springer-Nature's data sharing policies explain why understanding the need for data… - News
Research integrity and how to buy a Persian carpet: TOP Guidelines, part 2
…Picture by Garry Knight (Flickr: Persian Carpet) CC BY-SA 2.0 at http://bit.ly/2FKpQCo In “The art of buying a carpet,” Simon Busch suggests that a wise carpet buyer checks a carpet’s knot count (“You will find much truth under the carpet: turn it… - News
Guest editorial: the challenge of AI chatbots for journal editors
…="http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/10jvv3q/eli5_what_exactly_is_text_burstiness_and_text/">where precise meaning is required eg in a legal sense) and burstiness (rare words appearing in a text) of the text. This might present an additional challenge for some authors using this software. Their writing may be detected and flagged up as… - Seminars and webinars
Seminar 2021: Authorship for sale
…the paper mills webinar, 14:00pm - 15:30pm (BST / UTC +1) on Tuesday 20 September Useful links Systematic manipulation of the publication process, COPE guidance, updated 2022 - Case
Unauthorised reviewer challenges
A paper submitted to a journal with a single anonymous peer review policy was assigned to a prospective reviewer, who agreed to undertake the review. The reviewer then sent an email addressed to a number of different research group and institutional mailing lists calling for volunteers to review the paper. The reviewer attached the PDF of the paper, which had been downloaded from the submission… - Case
Academic freedom
A final year student, and two other researchers in law, all from the same university, undertook research into a recent court judgment on the rules in relation to civil servants making public comments. Based on this research, a manuscript was drafted to be submitted to a double anonymised peer reviewed journal. The manuscript is highly critical of the judgment’s reasoning and impact. All three a… - News
Letter from the COPE co-Chairs: February 2019
…1997, via formal registration as a charity in 2007, and onwards to the membership organisation we are now with more than 12,000 members and many, many valuable resources that people all over the world use. Liz was one of the good people that got COPE started on our amazing journey. So it is with great warmth that we wish you, Liz, all COPE’s very best for your retirement, and all the very best for… - Case
Possible plagiarism and fabrication
…with placebo for the difference in the incidence of nausea. 12. The second paper cites the first paper twice, once in the introduction and once in the discussion. Both citations are out of any context. According to the Royal College of Physician of London (1991), this represents serious scientific misconduct as it is about piracy, plagiarism, and fraud. It is very likely that actually all the data in… - Case
Plagiarism in a book title
We received a complaint of plagiarism by Dr A concerning a book that has just been published. This case is ongoing since January 2012. Authors B and C published a new, very extended edition (+1000 pages), on a topic that previously was covered in part in an English book by author B (published in 2006). Part of this book was based on a German book published back in 1993 by Dr A and author… - News
New: Chinese resources
…="https://publicationethics.org/files/Ethical_Guidlines_for_PeerReviewers_Chinese_Web.pdf">Ethical guidelines for peer reviewers Discussion document: What constitutes authorship? Flowcharts: Complete set of flowcharts - News
In the news: August 2021
…journals, and other organisations represents a commitment to creating a more inclusive culture in STEM fields and STEM publishing in particular. The participating national laboratories will facilitate requests for name changes for any reason, including religious, marital, or…