- Case
The double review
An author submitted a review to journal A in February 1997. It was accepted for publication in November, after peer review. The same author submitted a review on a similar topic—sufficiently similar that there was substantial overlap of content—to journal B in September 1997. Journal B accepted it in January 1998, after peer review. Neither journal editor knew of the parallel paper. Jou… - Case
Duplicate publication and now fraud?
Two articles were published in two different journals. The articles had been submitted within days of each other, and were subsequently peer reviewed, revised, and published within a month of each other. The authors failed to reference the closely related article as submitted or in press, and the editors of the two journals were unaware of the other article. After publication the editor… - Case
Overseas editor dismissed from university for fraud
An international specialist medical journal has editors in the UK and abroad who function independently. An issue of a scientific journal in 1998 reported that the overseas editor had been dismissed from a university professorship because of scientific fraud. This had been documented in three published research papers.The report highlighted a particular paper, in which 27 references cited indic… - News
In the news: October-November 2021
…authorship on a paper, has been receiving attention recently. A recent article in Retraction Watch drew our attention to two sites, one in Iran and one in Latvia, that appeared to sell authorship slots on finished papers, whilst another site… - News
In the news: March 2021
Each month, COPE Council members find and share publication ethics news. This month the news includes articles on predatory publishing, diversity and inclusion, peer review, and more. Diversity and inclusivity 500 Elsevier journals have started - News
In the news: February 2021
…href="https://www.bmj.com/company/researchintegrity/consent-for-publication/" target="_blank">guidance for authors about obtaining consent for publication for research and articles involving human participants. Diversity and inclusion The Life Science Editors Foundation has announced Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Awards. The award provides free scientific or language edits… - Event
Research Cluster in Applied Research Ethics & Integrity
Chris Graf, COPE co-Chair is giving the keynote speech at this conference to formally launch the Cluster to University of Kent students and academics. More information… - Case
Duplicate submission or self plagiarism. Is the author to blame?
…proceedings. The reviewer sent us the article downloaded from the conference website highlighting the overlapping paragraphs, which was nearly 80%. The journal wrote to the authors asking for an explanation. The authors stated that they had submitted an abstract of their work for participation in the international conference. The abstract was accepted on the condition that they submitted the… - Seminars and webinars
Trends and issues in publication ethics
…issues in publication ethics and COPE is working with other organisations to find industry-wide solutions. Read an interview-style article with Dan Kulp in a themed section of CASAD's official journal Science Bulletin: Chinese language edition, the 3rd issue 2022. Watch webinar - News
Reflections on the COPE North American Seminar 2019
…consultants. Karin is a co-founder of the group “Women Also Know History”, which is a media and curriculum tool to support and promote the work of more than 3,300 women scholars of history in all specialties. It was modeled after a similar group for political scientists "Women Also Know… - News
Peer Review Week 2018: new and revised COPE resources
Peer Review Week 2018 offered us an opportunity to consider this year’s theme of Diversity in multiple ways and to reflect on what gaps in our resources might exist. Here is a list of what we reviewed, completed, and revised related to peer review. - News
Editing, reviewing and writing during COVID-19
…Forum if you have a particular publication ethics case that has come about recently, whether created by the current situation or not. Support and guidance How swamped preprint servers are blocking bad coronavirus research Nature: repositories screening more closely May 2020 COPE, like… - Seminars and webinars
Caste and publishing: an ethics gap?
…embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } .embedtool .fluid-vids {position: initial !important} /*-->*/ /*-->*/ Seminars
…22kB] Poster: Fraud and deceit in medical research Download [PDF 22kB] Poster: Authors’ awareness of publication ethics: An international survey- Case
The ethics of self-experimentation
…of interest.— The need for IRB or ethics committee approval would totally exclude from publication any self-experimentation research performed by an independent researcher because they will not have access to any ethics committee or institutional review board. This would have prevented the publication of reports of highly useful reports ( - Case
Plagiarism or redundant publication?
A manuscript was submitted with a covering letter clearly stating the originality and unpublished nature of the work. The authors stated that the results had already been orally presented at a meeting the previous year. Before sending the manuscript for review the editors discovered that the manuscript contained 60% of the Materials and Methods text and 90% of the Results section of… - News
Global standards for authors and editors tackle thorny issues such as research bias and misleading publicity
…href="http://www.worldscibooks.com/socialsci/8102.html">here). COPE Chair, Liz Wager, writes: “COPE already helps editors from many of the world’s major publishers to deal with publication misconduct and the standards for editors complement the COPE Code of Conduct followed by our members. We also welcomed the chance to get involved in the first universal global guidelines for authors from all areas of scholarly publishing, including research scientists,… - Event
COPE Australia Seminar
Save the date! The seminar, held in collaboration with Wiley, WCRI (World Conference on Research Integrity) RMIT University and QUT,… - Seminars and webinars
Australian Seminar 2018: Levers for transparency: from funding through research to publication
…a range of perspectives: "What would you like to see by 2020 with respect to transparency in research?" … - News
Artificial intelligence and authorship
There has been a tweet circulating recently which gives instructions on how to remove a peanut butter sandwich from a video recorder, written in the style of Biblical verse. It’s very funny – at least until you realise that it was written by an AI bot. At that stage it becomes very clever, but it loses…