COPE webinar: Allegations of misconduct
…institution wide research compliance policies and procedures to ensure that the university is compliant with federal and state regulations. Previously, she served as the Director for the Division of Investigative Oversight (DIO), in the US Office of Research Integrity (ORI), responsible for oversightof institutional research misconduct matters. Susan received a PhD in genetics and conducted research in the…- News
Letter from the COPE Chair: September 2020
…ethically conscious reviewing is a quality that not only avoids compromising situations but strives to improve trust in the process, individual reviews, and their contributions to the research itself. We look to further promote trust in reviewing and publishing by asking communities what support they need from us and responding in a collaborative manner. Our 2019 - News
COPE collaboration with FORCE11 Working Group
…href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13169/prometheus.36.2.0116?seq=1">research assessing data policies at journals across a number of disciplines. The authors looked at the information sharing policies of 150 journals and publishers from 15 disciplines to understand the levels of different data sharing policies in different fields. Our collaboration with the FORCE11 WG allows us to continue our work supporting editors and publishers in handling ethical considerations… - Case
Duplicate publication
…topic areas and both are agreed that they will, in principle, follow the American lead and will deny publication to those proven to have been engaged in duplicate publication or plagiarism. Both have also agreed to write a joint editorial on this issue once the outcome of this case is known. However I would be grateful if advice could be given to us concerning the appropriateness of such action… - Case
Authorship order dispute
…You can listen to the podcast of this case from the menu on the right A manuscript has been accepted for publication in our journal and we would like to publish in the March 2011 issue. The corresponding author (Dr F) is trying to collect copyright forms from all of the authors of the paper to send back to us, but one author will not sign the copyright form due to a disagreement about… - Case
Correcting errors versus privileged information
…along with the admonition that authors BCD’s “only option is to wait for the critique to appear in print and publish a response to that”. About 1 year later, authors BCD submitted the corrigendum, suggesting that sufficient time had elapsed to allow author A to publish the critique, and that “This seemed to us to balance the interests of author A against the ethical requirement to promptly… - Case
Potential fabrication of data in primary studies included in a meta-analysis accepted for publication
…actually undertaken after proper clearance. And details of the same are available with the competent authority.” “We don't want to be get disturbed as I discussed with our main author.” “Excuse us..Bye”. Journal A has now halted publication of the meta-analysis. The editors of journal A are unsure how to proceed, as the potential research misconduct lies with research not submitted to the… - Seminars and webinars
Seminar 2022: Book wars
…and journal publishing, • The extent that accessibility to self-publishing may affect the quality of the content. • The possibility of realistic competition to Amazon. • Rules or guidelines in book trade publishing in similar vein as journal publishing ethics. • The pros and cons of self-publishing Useful links Press
…Media enquiry All Officers, Trustees and Council Members are volunteers and located globally, so employment commitments or time zones may mean a response is not immediate. How COPE responds to a media enquiry and what COPE does Contact COPE about specific stories. Press…- News
Open retractions data: podcast
… Summary Describe the new partnership between the two nonprofit groups and tell us how it came about? Crossref acquired Retraction Watch's database of article retractions, aligning with their shared mission. The partnership means Crossref… - Forum discussion topics
Artificial intelligence (AI) and fake papers
…US Copyright Office that works created with AI cannot be copyrighted WAME Recommendations on ChatGPT and… - News
Facilitation & Integrity 2023, a year in review
…replied to a request to correct the record; a concern voiced in several of the talks delivered to COPE’s Publication Integrity Week in October. Editors tell us that they have similar issues, and COPE will be working to facilitate greater dialogue between publishers, editors, and universities in 2024. Cooperation between… - 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… - News
Conflicts of interest focus
…what needs to be disclosed by all parties, including type of competing interest, extent, and recency. As Dr Neville Gibbs reminds us in a past COPE seminar presentation, transparency is key. Relevant conflicts of interest can go beyond funding source and commercial and/or personal financial gain. An acid test is… - Case
Sufficient consent?
…obtained consent from the patients? Although oral consent may be acceptable under these circumstances you should have a record of the audit trail e.g. written documentation that consent occurred. Can you provide us with evidence of the audit trail? 3) Can you please confirm where the study took place (the address of the nursing homes) and the institution to which it you are affiliated? And… - Case
Duplicated gel images
A few months we were contacted by a dean of an institution who informed us about misconduct of one of the senior scientists in that institution. An investigation launched by the institution showed that author A and coauthors reused the same images to show controls in many figures in their different publications. This problem was found in three publications in our journal. We decided… - Case
How to correct an incorrect decision to publish a flawed paper
…compensation claims in the USA. One of the authors of the original paper is prominent as an expert witness in such cases. In the course of one of these compensation cases, some original laboratory results behind the original paper were disclosed to a court and were published in another journal. A lawyer complained to us that they undermined the original paper, which the complainant said should be… - Case
Compromised peer review system in published papers
The journal has now published (or is in the process of publishing) retraction notices for all of the papers that the corresponding author agreed to retract. The journal has taken the suggestion from the Forum of ‘re-doing’ the peer review process for the other papers seriously and are planning on doing this The institution contacted us and wants to discuss the details of what we found… - Case
Authors’ contributions and involvement by medical communications company
…a paper of this type. Our contact has been willing to work with us on the basis that we will maintain anonymity. We feel that there are sufficient concerns about the contributions to the manuscript that we should confront the authors about this point—however, this will reveal that we have had interactions with the person involved in the editing. Question(s) for the COPE Forum - Case
Concerns regarding image manipulation and inconsistent figure legends
…despite the delay, to wait for their findings. In the US for example, (1) the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) will not provide updates to anyone of an ongoing investigation and (2) the ORI suggests that journals make their own decisions about retraction or expression of concern because the outcome of the investigation may not necessarily recommend a retraction as part of a finding. But…