- Case
An accusation of racism
…assessment: “Now that we have far more sensitive assays for detection of this condition it has become clear that it under reports the prevalence of the condition by a large margin. This view can be confirmed from most reviews in the literature relating to detection of this condition. In my view as journal ombudsman I believe the reviewing process to have been fair and accurate.” These comments were… - Case
Repeated alleged plagiarism in case reports
…asked my specialty editors to be vigilant about this form of intellectual property theft and to do whatever is possible to prevent being a party to it. I will explore whether there is any usable free software or online solution available to deal with this problem easily but in the meantime I have found Google really easy to use. While I have submitted this anonymised, I feel that serial… - Case
Advice regarding a weird type of content and its authorship
…authors (reviewers with useful comments). My questions are: • Should we make all reviewers authors, even if their report is pants? • I suspect not, but can you think of a useful threshold as to when a reviewer has done enough to be an author? • Year on year, we would have to check the “original” reviewers (ie, the first years') are still happy with the revised pathway, right? - Case
Possible breach of reviewer confidentiality
…how and why. Within a few hours, both reviewers replied that they kept the paper confidential and did not share it with anyone else. We take their assertions as valid and true, as we do with so many other statements by authors and reviewers. I informed the authors about the outcome of my investigation. I also suggested that if they still think that a reviewer may have broken confidentiality,… - Case
Withdrawal of accepted manuscript from predatory journal
…email or certified letter in order to communicate that threat effectively. However, she then sent a message to the publisher of the predatory journal: “Immediately remove my article from your website. If you do not do so immediately, I will take legal action”. The publisher responded by asking her for the article title and associated journal. The author provided this information and indicated she… - News
Case discussion: self-plagiarism and suspected salami publishing
…a published manuscript and asked the authors for an explanation. The editorial board concluded that this case did not represent redundant or salami publication, but did satisfy its criteria for text recycling. A relevant note was added to paper A and journal B was informed. Case Discussion This archived COPE Forum case is categorised under two COPE Core Practices,… - News
Case discussion: repeated complaints about a review
…overturned by new research thanks to technological or methodological advancements. Furthermore, data or findings from new research should not normally be added post-publication as a correction to update a paper; a new research paper should be prepared. Nevertheless, some journals do allow authors to publish meta-analysis update articles and online continually updated (“ Seminars
…22kB] Poster: Fraud and deceit in medical research Download [PDF 22kB] Poster: Authors’ awareness of publication ethics: An international survey- Case
Withdrawal of acceptance based on potentially unconsented data
…/06/22/tortuous-and-torturous-why-publishing-a-critical-letter-to-the-editor-is-so-difficult/">this discussion at Retraction Watch). An intermediate solution might be to consider adding a note indicating that the articles were retracted and why. The journal could then ask the authors of the letters to adapt what they have written with this in mind and focus on what else they might want to… - Forum discussion topics
Ethical considerations around book publishing
…(members and non-members) can comment on this discussion. Comments are reviewed and, on approval, added below.… - Forum discussion topics
Claiming institutional affiliations
…affiliations Khaled Moustafa, Arabixiv Papers A summary of the discussion at the virtual Forum event will be added to this page shortly. Page updated: 12 December 2023 We welcome comments on… - Case
Should we always follow the decisions of ethics committees?
…given). They replied that they had not given them the information that this could happen and why the investigation was performed. I also doubt that the ethics committee knew the true reason for doing the study. This case resembles many I have seen over the years. The study was approved by the authors’ university ethics committee. My question is whether we, as journal editors, always… - Case
Plagiarism in a case report
I confirmed independently that the case was genuine and wrote an “expression of concern” that will be published in the October issue of my journal. The advice provided by COPE was very helpful in resolving this issue.… - Case
Availability of reagents
…results. The journal requires authors to accept that “By publishing in [the journal], authors agree that any viruses, plasmids and living materials, such as cell lines or bacterial strains, that are newly described [my italics] within the article are available without unnecessary delay and at a reasonable cost to members of the scientific community for non-commercial purposes”. As cell line X was not… - Case
Falsified references
An article was submitted to my journal and was sent for peer review. An editorial board member realised that a number of the references were incorrect: publication dates had been changed to make them more current. The author was contacted by email and telephone who said he/she had a number of students working for him (who were not listed as authors or in the acknowledgment) and they… - Case
Authorship issue
…now left the institution). Dr A held the IRB. Dr A had instructed Dr C not to publish until the mother paper was completed. Dr C was asked by the editors to comment on these points, and he responded by saying that: the intellectual contribution from Drs A and B was minimal; he (Dr C) had added the relevant addendum to the IRB myself; Drs A and B had threatened to ruin his career if he did… - Case
Professional misconduct of one author
…a valid reason for issuing a correction to the literature. Moreover, if ICMJE authorship criteria are being used, the reason for removal of an author needs to be added; it must be an academic reason; and all authors would have to agree and sign off in… - News
Artificial intelligence: Lightning talk summary
…The checks carried out by AI are done at various stages: as part of initial verifications, as peer review is initiated, and as it continues. Sometimes flags are raised late in the process, for example, if new data have been added to the training bank after the article went into the process. Deciding when to run checks is a complicated process, especially when a manuscript is also changing as it… - Case
Conflicts of interest between authors and editors
…should declare this and not participate in the peer reviewer assignment or any editorial decisions, and a note should ideally be added in the paper about the independence of the peer review process. If the editor were already an editor in the previous articles and took part in their review process, their peer review has been compromised. A post-publication peer review would be needed with an… - News
In the news: July & August 2022
…crowdsourced review after posting, use of artificial intelligence strategies and curation platforms. Authorship #pleasedontstealmywork campaign in Denmark headed by PhD candidate highlights structural problems in national research hierarchy. Paper mills US House…