FORUM DISCUSSION TOPIC: comments please
…this discussion previously via an earlier forum discussion and with respect to peer review. To continue the conversation, COPE has developed a new…- Case
Unethical research undertaken by a single handed GP
We have received a paper from a GP testing the hypotheses that because 24,25 cholecalciferol has a similar structure to commercially available statins, it may act as an inhibitor of HMA co-reductase. He screened 350 patients in his practice and identified 77 who had a cholesterol concentration above 6.5 mmol per litre. Thirty-three of them agreed to return for a second test 2 weeks later. They… - News
Understanding your needs: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
…editor on an arts, humanities, or social sciences journal, we would welcome your feedback on your experiences of handling ethics issues in your editorial role. The closing date for survey responses is Sunday 24 February 2019. Please complete the survey. You will get the chance to enter into a prize draw to win a US$100 Amazon voucher or a charity donation on your behalf to one of the following… - Event
COPE Forum: December 2022
…advice? Submit a case The deadline to submit a case for this Forum is: Thursday 24 November 2022. --> Forum agenda On Thursday 8 December 2022 the COPE Forum will be held at 14:00-15:30pm (GMT / UTC) 1. Update Update on COPE activities by the Chair. 2. Forum discussion topic We begin the… - Case
Dispute over plagiarism
A review article, written by two authors, was spontaneously submitted to Journal X and accepted for publication after favourable comments from the referees. A few weeks later, and before the paper had been published, Author A withdrew authorship because he could not guarantee the originality of the text. Apparently, Author A had recently discovered that another review paper, co-authored with th… - Case
Plagiarism of a PhD thesis
We received a complaint from an author claiming that her PhD thesis had been plagiarized in a journal article. After many discussions, the editorial office decided that the authors should resolve this issue among themselves, as it was an author dispute.After further correspondence, the editorial office is now also saying that because the thesis is not published anywhere, there is no need… - Discussion documents
How should editors respond to plagiarism? April 2011
…Contents Aims and scope Background Introduction Types of plagiarism 2.1 Extent 2.2 Originality of copied material 2.3 Position / context 2.4 Referencing / attribution 2.5 Intention 2.6 Author seniority 2.7 Language Detecting and responding to plagiarism Screening for plagiarism Defining… - Research
Exploring publication ethics in the arts, humanities, and social sciences: A COPE study 2019
…fabrication (31%). Recognising and dealing with bias in peer reviewer comments was an issue encountered by 55% of journal editors. Journal editors felt least confident in dealing with data and/or image fabrication issues (24%), fraudulent submissions (23%), and intellectual property and copyright issues (21%). - Case
Randomised controlled trial without ethics committee approval
…with simple verbal consent and would have required this in writing, with the patients being given 24 hours to consider whether they wanted to take part. Should the editors now reject the paper, or should they consider accepting it with an explanatory commentary about the ethical issue?… - Case
Letter to the editor and retraction notice
A Letter to the Editor was submitted to Journal A – this Letter contained major criticisms of a paper previously published in Journal A, in particular of the statistical analysis underpinning the conclusions and the study design, and called for its retraction. The Editor sent the Letter out for peer review and some revisions were made by the authors. Based on both the content of the Letter and… - Case
Authors request withdrawal of a 19-year old article
We have been approached by the authors of an article published about 19 years ago stating that they have found an error in a mathematical proof in their research. As a result, although the main theorem proposed in the paper should still be true, they would need to completely revise the text and intend in the longer run to find a new proof. They recognise that the paper as published cannot stand… - News
In the news: May Digest
…Scholarly Kitchen post investigates. https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2019/04/24/editing-is-at-the-heart-of-scholarly-publishing/ At the Scholarly Kitchen, Lisa Hinchcliffe interviews Stephen Inchcoombe, Chief Publishing Officer at Springer Nature about their… Job vacancy: COPE content writer
…Adaptable and flexible. To apply Please send a CV and cover letter to the Executive Officer, Natalie Ridgeway by 24 July 2020…- Case
A falling out
…that in the collaboration “the idea for this research was therefore entirely generated by us”. Furthermore, he said, B and C “saw and agreed to all the changes in the short manuscript and the final version that was submitted to the journal with all our signatures.” He went on: “I had to review the proofs within 24 hours and fax them back. There was no time to send this to the other authors for their… - Case
Ethics, institutional review and studies from private practice
A manuscript was submitted to our journal regarding a chart review of a novel treatment of a musculoskeletal disease, done at a private clinic in a western country. The patients had given informed consent for the novel treatment, but there was no ethical approval. We contacted the authors, who have replied that ethics approval could not be obtained, and indeed was not needed, because the… - Case
Potential plagiarism
In 2003, Journal A published an original article. In 2006, the editor received a complaint of plagiarism relating to a case report published by Journal B in 2000. The introduction of both articles had one identical paragraph and some paragraphs in the discussion were similar. The article published by Journal A did not reference Journal B, despite: (a) being easy to find on a simpl… - Case
Parallels between unpublished manuscript and a published article from other authors
I am seeking advice on a confidential ‘letter of concern’ from an author (X) of a manuscript submitted before I was appointed editor of the journal but rejected by me on the advice of the associate editor. Author X is concerned with similarities or parallels between his manuscript, rejected in 2008, and a recently published article. I have looked over our file and contacted the associate… - Case
Criteria to determine whether an author’s response to concerns about data validity is satisfactory
Questions were raised regarding the validity of data in two published papers (from the same author). The journal therefore followed the initial steps as listed in the COPE flowchart ‘What to do if you suspect fabricated data’ and contacted the author as appropriate. The author responded promptly and provided all the information requested (ethics approval letters, the original protocols… - Case
Stolen ownership of a rare case
A case report was published in our journal after being approved by a peer reviewer and subjected to a technical review. The first author was a post-graduate trainee attached to the department of pathology of a prestigious national institute. A month later we received an email from a resident working at a specialist department of another institute claiming that the patient belonged to them and a… - Webform
COPE peer review workshop 2020
Registration is now closed as the workshop is full Peer review workshop Thursday 24 September 2020, 4.00pm - 5.15pm (BST), online workshop (COPE Members only) This year's Peer Review Week is dedicated to 'Trust in peer review'. Peer Review…