- Case
Advice regarding a weird type of content and its authorship
Our company publishes clinical pathways. They were initially authored by local experts, but have since been retrofitted with evidence, if possible. This was done by expert “evidologists”, not clinical experts; they were acknowledged solely by their company name (it was “out-sourced”). If the evidence did not fit, the pathway was discarded. We undertake to review all of the pathways… - Case
Duplicate publication in multicentre consortia
Two closely related journals received a series of manuscripts each based on descriptions of a complex medical procedure by multicentre consortia. At least three separate consortia submitted three separate papers. Each consortium included centres which were shared between the three groups and likely have the same patients/procedures represented in different reports. For example: … - Case
Editor as author
A publisher was contacted by an editor-in-chief of one of their journals. The editor-in-chief wanted to submit an article written by themselves and one of the journal editorial board members. The article related to treatment provided by the editor to a patient, who was also the coauthor of the paper. The publisher was concerned about the ethical issues that would need to be addre… - Seminars and webinars
Seminar 2022: Relationship between universities and publishers
…class="resource-download-inline"> Presentation The critical relationship between universities and COPE - Case
Sanctions for citation cartels?
Multiple journals appear to be affected by a citation cartel between a group of researchers across three universities, via the medium of special issues. All articles within the issues contain a high proportion of citations to the same researchers at the three universities, many as high as 100%. Looking at the pattern of citations to these researchers' work, they have only ever been cited in the… - Case
Guest editors for single articles
A COPE member has noted instances of journals contacting individuals - who are not on their editorial board - to request that they act as guest editor for a single manuscript. The invitation makes it clear that they are being asked to recruit reviewers and to make the editorial decision. This practice includes instances where the invitee has had no prior contact with the journal. C… - News
Where next in peer review? Part 2: COPE commentary
In Part 1 of this Commentary we outlined some of the problems, solutions, and tools facing peer review. In Part 2 we address perhaps the most lively area of debate on this topic at the moment: the role of artificial intelligence (AI). Artificial intelligence Covid-19 saw… - Flowcharts
All Flowcharts
…office updated 2022 Systematic manipulation of the publication process, updated 2022 Addressing concerns about systematic manipulation of the publication process new 2023 Peer… - Discussion documents
Citation manipulation
…href="https://publicationethics.org/sites/default/files/COPE_DD_A4_Citation_Manipulation_Jul19_SCREEN_AW2.pdf" target="_blank">citation-manipulation.pdf PDF 384 KB Key points … - Case
Query regarding a retraction
A journal published a paper. Some months later, the author asked if they could change the contents of the paper. The Editor in Chief had some concerns with respect to some of the results and could not come to an agreement with the author. The author then requested withdrawal of this paper and asked that it be removed from the database. The author also accused the journal of being unethical. - Seminars and webinars
European Seminar 2019: Exploring Publication Ethics Issues in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
…dealing with bias in reviewer comments as one of the top five issues, with 19% saying this happened frequently. These included: •A lack of support on ethics related to editors acting as reviewers or guest editors •Achieving blind review when the reviewers and authors have ties, or when working versions of papers are often published online before journal submission.… - Case
Authorship dispute during the review process
During the review process for a manuscript submitted to our journal, one of the reviewers alerted us that the manuscript appeared to be the work of a collaborator (Dr X) who was not listed as an author on the paper. It became clear that the manuscript’s corresponding author (Dr Y, affiliation A) was a postdoctoral researcher supervised by Dr X (previously at affiliation A, recently moved to aff… - Case
An enquiry about arbitrating reviewers
Under certain circumstances, the editors of journal A use ‘arbitrating’ reviewers. These reviewers advise an editor where, for example, an editor has split reviewer reports or a rebuttal to a decision that was based on split reviewer reports. This reviewer has sight of the other reviewers’ reports as he/she both evaluates the manuscript and assists the editor, through their advice, to arrive at… - Case
Duplicate publication allegation
Our journal (journal A) received a complaint from a 'Clare Francis' alerting us to a case of duplicate publication involving our journal and another (journal B). The article in journal A was published first, but submitted after the article in journal B. Clare Francis requested that the article in journal A should be withdrawn as it is duplicate publication. However, the article in journal B was… - Case
Increased number of casual submissions
We have experienced a sudden spurt in casual submissions of poor quality articles. We believe this is because authors wish to show that they have submitted articles which are under consideration at reputable journals. While any journal or editor would be happy to see increased numbers of submissions, sadly, most are of very poor quality in all respects. Most are very casually prepared wi… - Guidelines
Ethical guidelines for peer reviewers
…source material and the type of review requested. The model of peer review will also influence elements of the process. Related resources Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers (Chinese) Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers… - News
Artificial intelligence and authorship
…accelerating market of AI bots. The newest generation of these – the most discussed currently being OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the latest version of which was launched in November 2022 – are based on Large Language Models (LLMs). They are trained on vast banks of example text which enable them to determine, in a probabilistic sense, what… - Case
Submissions from members of the editorial board
…manuscripts was delayed for two reasons. At first, essential forms (such as the conflict of interest statements) were missing and the editor-in-chief received the manuscripts 10–35 days after submission when the administrative checklist was complete. In addition, it was difficult to recruit reviewers who were willing to assess the manuscripts over the summer, and several papers were within a rather narrow… - News
In the news: May Digest
…gastroenterologists at the point of care. https://www.gastroendonews.com/In-the-News/Article/04-19/GI-Guidelines-Often-Fail-to-Disclose-Financial-Conflicts-of-Interest/54540 The BMJ is launching a stream of content to identify and respond to… - Case
Should stockholders of a pharmaceutical industry declare conflicts of interest in a research paper?
…such guidelines. Both of the US Preventive Services Taskforce and the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence also have moved beyond a simple declaration of interest in these guidelines on managing conflicts of interest . Questions for COPE Council What is the…