- Case
Comments linked to retracted papers
…a particular paper, and one that is about a wider topic and is more like a mini review. They may accompany a paper or might be standalone and in a different issue. How the commentary relates to the published paper (eg, extent or message, sentiment, purpose) would matter. If the commentary is only about the now retracted paper and is mostly positive about its contribution to the field and its practical… - Case
Potential image integrity flags on 15-year-old published papers
What should a journal do if an old (more than 15 years old) published paper is flagged on PubPeer for image concerns, but the case cannot be resolved due to the time lapsed? For example, if only low quality images are available online that cannot be analysed conclusively; some of the key authors may no longer be contactable; the raw data is no longer available; an institutional investigation… - Case
Authorship order dispute
…Drs C and E, with the oversight of Dr F as the head of department. Dr D is adamant that she should be first or second author on the paper (rather than third as she currently is), and said that she intends to block publication if this is not done, even though she has said that she will not work in academia again and is not interested in academic rewards. As head of department, Dr F is not… - Case
Coauthor fails to respond to request to confirm coauthorship
…authors have to resolve their own authorship disputes (involving the institution if need be), we felt this case was different because it did not appear to be a case of disputing who should/should not be an author, or a situation in which a coauthor objected to some aspect of the paper. Instead, if the corresponding author is to be believed, it is simply a disruptive manoeuvre that twists the journal's… - Case
Not getting consent from an ethics committee
…· Agreement that this was a blatant experiment on children. · The parents had given permission for the administration of the diet but had been informed that this was a trial, which was felt to be sloppy conduct rather than intentional avoidance of ethical approval. - Case
Author misconduct
…retract the paper. Also, journal A told the rector that if author D keeps refusing to retract the paper, journal A will publish an addendum as author D requests. The rector at author D’s institution replied to journal A that they still believe that the paper should be retracted and that the institution’s name could not be associated with the article. Following communication with the authors and… - Case
Duplicate publication or salami publication?
The advice of the Forum was for the editor to assess the degree of overlap between the two papers. If the editor judges it to be major overlap, he should reject the paper. If it is minor overlap, the editor should contact the authors for an explanation. It was suggested that the editor could consult the “sample letters” on the COPE website which deal with “Overlap of figures or text with… - Case
WAME case
All agreed that waiting 18 months for a decision on a manuscript was wholly unacceptable, especially as no acknowledgement was sent. The Forum acknowledged that finding suitable reviewers can be a problem, particularly in specialist areas. But even in these situations, the author should be contacted within 2–3 months and kept updated on the situation. If it is a very specialist area,… - Case
Complaint regarding letters to the editor
Our journal routinely sends letters commenting on published articles to the authors of those articles. This gives the authors an opportunity to respond to any criticisms. The letters and the responses are then considered together and we make a decision on which ones to publish. If a letter is not selected for publication, our usual practice is to send the author's response to the person… - Case
Data source for study of questionable integrity and provenance
…concluded. Prior to the meeting, the journal decided that given these concerns, they would not proceed with the paper. The obvious thing to do would be to reject the paper, but by holding it, the journal can also prevent it being published elsewhere. Questions for COPE Council Does COPE agree with this course of action and what, if any, additional steps should the journal… - Case
The tortuous tale of a paper, a letter and an editorial
…wrote: “We are unaware of any other papers that have described this problem ….The paper is not under consideration elsewhere.” At the beginning of May, journal Y sent Dr B’s article for peer review. Meanwhile, the letter from Dr B to journal X was accepted at the beginning of June. A revised paper from Dr B was returned to journal Y on 10 June. The editor wanted Dr A to reply and asked Dr B if he had… - Case
Review of a book written by an editor of a journal
The Forum agreed that this was a dilemma—if the book review is not published in the editor’s journal then you may be denying readers knowledge of a potentially useful book but if it is published, is editor A abusing their position as editor? How will the journal be perceived if the book review is published? Would readers question why this book was selected for review? And would the reviewer of… - Case
Department notification regarding sensitive topic
An essay was submitted to a specialty medical journal. In the essay, the author described an ethical dilemma—involving patient care—encountered while in medical school. The manuscript received favourable reviews, although the reviewers expressed concern about the author’s career if the essay was published. The editor called the author to discuss the ramifications of publication, and then the… - Case
Ethical considerations in publishing conference papers
…full conference papers count as prepublication. Although practices vary across journals, all journals should have clear guidelines on this issue. Some journals do not allow republication of a conference paper, some allow republication if the conference paper was only a short version (abridged or summary) and some allow republication if a certain amount of new data or original material is… - Case
How to deal with obvious but disclosed conflict of interest
…likely to be published otherwise. If we do publish, the editor would ask the authors to not only disclose in the proper COI declaration page but also in the discussion section of the paper as a ‘limitation’. Questions for COPE Council Is this the correct course of action? Is the disclosure of COI sufficient? What is the standard for publication by corporate… - Case
Image duplication
…Concern be raised instead of a retraction. The Editor agreed to this proposal. Question for COPE Council Could the author have been permitted to repeat the experiments and, if so, would a Corrigendum have been more appropriate than the proposed Expression of Concern? … - Case
The author not affiliated to an institution
_ The editor needs to find out if the author had worked in the department before or whether he had never worked there. _ Had the author used the university’s headed notepaper when making his submission? _ The current employer, or appropriate regulatory body if there is no employer, should be asked to investigate the use of another affiliation. _ Passing off papers under false credentials is… - Case
Plagiarized figure
We received a review paper and it was accepted and published on our website. We then noticed that one of the figures had been copied from a paper published in another journal. Before publication, we asked the authors if the figures were original or if they needed references, and the authors responded that they were original. After confirmation of the similarity of one figure to… - Case
Ethics of non-active management of a control group
The Forum advised that this appears to be unethical research conduct and egregious violation of human ethics. Withholding known effective treatment for experimental purposes is not ethical in human subjects’ research. If there is a known effective treatment, the study cannot ethically be done, and any institutional review board would raise a question about such a protocol. If the active… - Case
Disputed authorship
…· She sounded like a contributor, not an author. · It is common practice to put people on abstracts even when they had only had a small part. · It is dangerous practice to involve someone at one level (in this case the…