- News
COPE advice to editors on geopolitical intrusions on editorial decisions
…2013 1 August 2013 There has been much discussion recently on government, specifically US government, sanctions against Iran, the potential effect on Iranian researchers and some publishers have cautioned editors and reviewers about handling papers from Iran. A recent BMJ news item… - Event
Charleston Conference 2019
…& Francis) Claire Sewell, Research Skills Coordinator / Social Media Editor (Cambridge University Library / New Review of Academic Librarianship) Deborah Poff, Chair (Committee on Publication Ethics) Charleston Conference… - News
Thank you and farewell to Council Members
…target="_blank">Revista Española de Cardiología, the official journal of the Spanish Society of Cardiology, Spain Jason Hu - joined COPE while at ORCID, China. Now at Taylor &… Presentations
…href="/files/u2/Warwick_CHEIA.pdf">Download PDF (700 kb) Presented by Sabine Kleinert At the conference: Council of Higher Education Auditors' Annual Conference Warwick, UK September 2008 The editors' role in investigating publication misconduct- News
Case discussion: Editing peer review comments
…transparent about what comments could be shared (and although not stated, stick to those policies). There was no COPE comment regarding editing of the reviewer comments. In 2011 case 11-22, the corresponding author requested that her or his co-authors be restricted from seeing the reviewer comments directly due to… - Case
Publication of data without permission
A director of an institute in France has expressed concern about a paper published in our journal. One of the authors (not the corresponding author) of the paper, person A, visited his laboratory in France for 5 months in 2009 to carry out some work. The director says that some methods used and results obtained in his laboratory have now been included in the paper without his knowledge or permi… - Case
Withdrawal of accepted manuscript from predatory journal
Our journal has been contacted by an author who would like to submit a review article. The author responded to a request for an invited review from a predatory journal without realizing it was a predatory journal. The author submitted the article only to receive an unexpected invoice and clear evidence of no peer review. The author investigated the journal and then realized the predatory nature… - Case
Publishing a letter concerning a paper published in another journal many years ago
Recently, Journal X received a letter to the editor based on an article published in another journal about 8 years previously. The editors of Journal X believe this letter is important to their readers. The original article was a seminal paper which changed practice. However, a group of authors challenged some of the data published in this trial in a subsequent review published about 7 ye… - Case
Data integrity issues
Several years ago, a third party contacted the journal with concerns about data irregularities in two randomised controlled trials published about 10 years ago. Both of the papers were published before the journal had strict requirements on data upload to a public repository and availability. The journal sent an initial email to the corresponding author of both papers (the same author fo… - Case
An unpublished PhD thesis included in an institutional library is submitted to an academic journal
A manuscript was submitted to Journal A. A routine CrossCheck report revealed a 70% match to the author's PhD thesis. The journal recommended that the author expand the article with new content. The author raised an objection, arguing that the PhD thesis is not published in a journal, but is only included in the institutional library. The journal noted that related issues had been… - Case
Withdrawal of acceptance based on potentially unconsented data
…even a research type letter, the authors could remove the affected material and references, without referring to the retracted papers. If the letters cite the papers in the context of journalology, or criticise the same issues that underlie later retraction, it could be argued the letters could stay, with an explanatory editorial note (see for example - Forum discussion topics
Author behavioural misconduct
…or not there is a topical link to the content? If so, how, and on what basis, might such a link be confirmed or denied? References Marin-Spiotta E. (2018). Harassment should count as scientific misconduct in Nature, 10 May 2018, Volume 557, page 141 Artificial intelligence (AI) in decision making: Forum discussion topic November 2019
…discussion topic, members' cases will be presented for discussion and advice from the participants of the Forum. COPE members need to register for the Forum by Friday 8 November 2019. Please do leave any…- Seminars and webinars
Webinar 2019: Allegations of misconduct
…height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u_dhX_UHRws" width="100%"> Summary Nancy Chescheir, COPE Council and Editor in Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology, introduced and moderated the webinar. Nancy reminded everyone of COPE's Core Practice Allegations of Misconduct, and what it means in its broadest sense: "Any practice… - News
Where next in peer review? Part 2: COPE commentary
…a surge in rapid, community-led peer review because of the urgent need to understand more about the virus. Unfortunately, a number of the resulting articles later had to be retracted and this damaged faith in community-driven rapid review. This time, however, we seem so far to have avoided these reservations. COPE… - News
Comments please: framework for editors when requesting patient consent for publication in small cohort studies
The International Rhuematology Editors' Group would like to receive comments from wider specialty communities on their framework below. Please send any comments to Shehnaz Ahmed. Framework for editors when requesting patient consent for publication in small… - News
New: Chinese resources
…href="https://twitter.com/i/moments/861565146476544001">COPE China #C0PEChina Tweets… - Seminars and webinars
Post-publication critiques
…co-founder of PubPeer, a not-for-profit website which allows readers and authors to comment on scholarly publications. Nick Wise is a researcher in fluid dynamics and an integrity ‘sleuth’ whose work has resulted in over 900 retractions. Peter Doshi is an associate professor of pharmaceutical health services research and leads the - Forum discussion topics
Ethical considerations around watchlists
….embedtool embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } .embedtool .fluid-vids {position: initial !important} /*-->*/ Watchlists are a contentious issue in scholarly publishing. They are used to maintain… - News
Announcement of COPE Council elections
…administrator here, to whom applications and nominations can be emailed. The closing date for applications is 22 OCTOBER 2010. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ COPE council member: role description Purpose of role To be responsible, together…