- Case
New surgical technique without evidence of either ethics committee approval or patient consent
A study was submitted in which the authors describe a new surgical technique, which includes radiofrequency coagulation, to treat complete prolapse of the rectum. They say in their paper that: “in the treatment of complete rectal prolapse, no operation stands out in comparison to the others.” The authors do not seem to have received either ethics committee approval or consent from the… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: July 2019
Is self-citation ever an ethical action for authors to do? Is there ever a justification for editors or reviewers to recommend citations to their own work or their own journal? These are just some of the topics addressed in the new, and about to be released, COPE discussion document on citation… COPE Forum
…class="button" href="/events/cope-forum-march-2024">Forum agenda and register --> Submit a case to COPE Forum Submit a case We encourage COPE members to review existing cases before submitting a case to the Forum, or to COPE Council, to see if similar cases have already been discussed. Please note that…FORUM DISCUSSION TOPIC: comments please
…paid to the appropriate means of handling financial or nonfinancial conflicts of interest that are fully disclosed at the outset of the review process for papers or post-publication commentaries. While disclosure should not serve as a rubber stamp, affording authors the opportunity to advance any argument regardless of personal interest or biases, it is also clear that overly aggressive…Work with us
…are seeking applications to fill two vacancies on the Trustee Board as we look to expand the support we provide. We are specifically looking for candidates: from outside the UK and the US, with a particular preference for those based in Africa, Asia or Latin America. who are journal editors or individual members. with a background in Books or Conference…- Case
Duplicate submission or self plagiarism. Is the author to blame?
…and whether the authors knew it or not is irrelevant. It seems the authors did not have a reply from the conference organiser about their initial request for non-publication. If the conference did not reply and they continued with the abstract submission, the conference policy still holds. Perhaps the journal can clarify if the authors received a reply from the conference. If not, they should not… - Case
Paper published without permission or acknowledgement from institution
…submission and subsequent publication of the single author paper in the journal. The research institute said that they had not been able to reach an agreement with the author about the situation and asked the publisher to publish an erratum (or some similar note of concern) with the text: “The work was carried out while the author was at [xxx] funded by [xxx]. The experimental scheme set out in… - Seminars and webinars
Inclusive language: policing or progressive?
….pubpub.org/guidelines-on-inclusive-language-and-images-in-scholarly-communication">C4DISC. More than half had encountered issues with problematic or offensive language in submitted material, and the most common response was to request or encourage authors to make changes. Individuals also noted a number of other issues, including language barriers, rapidly changing recommendations for best practices, working with many different people in the editorial process, and handling… Equal Opportunities Policy
…environment in which all individuals are afforded an equal opportunity to make best use of their skills, free from discrimination or harassment, and in which all employment decisions are made without regard to age, disability, gender identity, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation, or any…Editing of reviewer comments: Forum discussion topic March 2020
…reviews of the work in question and to not be subjected to hostile or personal attacks. Examples of possible problematic reviews or circumstances for which some editors might consider whether to edit or quash the review: "This author group clearly is lacking any fundamental knowledge of the topic." The reviewer recommends inclusion of their own work in the reference list…Rights and permissions policy
…COPE’s rights and permissions policy covers the permitted use of our logo and other COPE materials, as well as copyright and permissions issues relating to video or images of people. Page contents –– Reproducing or translating COPE materials –– Use of the COPE logo ––- News
COPE Trustee
…Vacancies on the COPE Trustee Board We are seeking applications for two vacancies on the COPE Trustee Board as we look to enhance the support we provide. We are specifically seeking: candidates from outside the UK and the US, with a particular preference for those based in Africa, Asia or Latin… APAME 2013 Tokyo
…Asia Pacific Association of Medical Journal Editors (APAME) in association with the Japanese Association of Medical Journal Editors joint (JAMJE) at the Japan Medical Association in Tokyo. The themes include responsible conduct of research, digital publishing trends and publication ethics. More details on the congress, including the programme, can be found here:FORUM DISCUSSION TOPIC: comments please
…EXPRESSIONS OF CONCERN Expressions of concern are “used to raise awareness to a possible problem in an article” (Council of Science Editors, 2012). They are a relatively new, rare, and non-standardized type of editorial notice compared to corrections or retractions and “considerable differences in policy and…FORUM DISCUSSION TOPIC: comments please
…Competing interests (also known as conflicts of interests (COIs)) are ubiquitous. One definition is as follows“A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial interest, or otherwise, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation of the individual or organization. The presence of a conflict of interest is independent of…- Case
Dual submission, salami slicing, redundant publication, or all three?
…basis. Public interest in preventing fraudulent publication overrides confidentiality with the author. Sometimes authors write up different aspects of one research study and send them to different journals, so dome degree of overlap is inevitable, but as long as the authors openly declare what they have done, this is acceptable practice. They should cross reference or include a copy of… - Forum discussion topics
Author behavioural misconduct
December 2022 Increasingly, journals and publishers are being notified or even asked to act when authors – or others involved in the publication process – are accused or convicted of crimes or various forms of “behavioural misconduct,” such as abuse or harassment. For the purposes of this discussion, “behavioural misconduct” is defined as… - Case
Unethical private practice
This single author manuscript describes the treatment of 300 women with psychological problems. The women were randomised to either therapy or pharmacological intervention, and this study reports the relative effectiveness of these strategies. At submission, the manuscript did not contain any mention of ethics approval, consent or trial registration. When the author was queried on these… - Case
Ethics approval for survey design
…subjects’ protection information was provided. This is not unusual at the journal when the institutional review board (IRB) or organisation does not provide documents in English. The journal requires an English language translation copy of IRB approval on submission of the revision. After peer review, a revision was requested along with an English translation of the IRB approval letter, the exemption or… - Flowcharts
Responding to whistleblowers when concerns are raised directly
COPE's guidelines as a flowchart on how to respond to whistleblowers when concerns about a published article are raised directly with the publisher or the editor. How should you respond when concerns are raised by a whistleblower about a published article directly via email to the editor or publisher? This could include anonymous or not anonymous concerns about scientific soundness or…