Editing, reviewing and writing during COVID-19
…in which publishers and industry leaders can continue to support academic peer-reviewed research and the entire academic publishing ecosystem Scholarly Kitchen: changes and challenges to scholarly communications: September 2020 Four…- Case
Unethical withdrawal of a paper
…future and wanted to verify with them that his intended action—a ban for double submission—was suitable. On returning from meeting with the publishers, Editor A discovered that the paper had never been withdrawn from consideration and the review process was now complete (entire review process 28 days). The reviewer comments warranted rejection. Editor A sent a rejection letter to Authors A and… - News
In the news: November 2020
…-one-largest-research-philanthropies-will-require-immediate-open-access" target="_blank">make their research immediately open access, as of January 2022. The new policies are similar to those of cOAlition S and are anticipated to put pressure on some very elite journals, such as Cell, Nature and Science. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has changed their open… The ethics of audit and research
…Ethics must be about resisting the escape from unwelcome thought. Comments Definitions Audit looks to see whether clinicians and practitioners have applied what research has found. For example, a patient needs to be operated on within 24 hours of fracturing the neck of the femur: an audit would want to know if that…Projects Funded
…href="https://www.wcri2010.org/index.asp">Second World Conference on Research Integrity in Singapore, 21-24 July 2010, where we plan to start the Delphi process for discussing the definitions of authorship across scientific disciplines. Research on the authorship/publication practices of editors in their own journal has been completed and the manuscript has been accepted for publication. Details of the published article will…- News
In the news: December 2018 Digest
…="http://retractionwatch.com/2018/11/28/majority-of-journals-editorial-board-resigns-after-publishers-handling-of-letter-about-move-to-open-access/" target="_blank">editorial. A Corrigendum was issued after legal threats by copyright holders of a mobile app who demanded new acknowledgements, references and warnings to be added. Interestingly, the… Membership application FAQ
…than one full-time equivalent paid member of staff per journal (ie, run mainly on voluntary efforts) and with zero income/funding from any source (including from a publisher). Can I apply for membership for my university or research institute? In 2022 COPE launched a new membership category to support university and research institute members who:- News
Diversity, equity, inclusivity and accessibility: COPE commentary
…within the wider publishing community. In March 2022 we issued a position statement which stated that COPE is committed to creating an inclusive and equitable culture, where all voices are welcomed and heard, and difference is celebrated. Through our words and actions, we intend to work for… - Forum discussion topics
Ethical considerations around watchlists
…that all parties consult legal counsel for individual cases. COPE is exploring the need for guidance on ethical issues surrounding watchlists and welcomes comments on this topic. - News
Letter from the COPE co-Chairs: December 2018
…="https://mailchi.mp/publicationethics/authorship-issues-peer-review-manipulation-cope-digest-december-2018">Read December Digest: Authorship Issues | Peer Review Manipulation (Image credit: Leaf changing colour. License: CC0 Public Domain https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=59188&picture=leaf-changing-color)… Facilitation and Integrity FAQ
…style="text-decoration:none;">[email protected] with any other queries. COPE resources are available under a CC BY-NC-ND license, and thus the resources may be used by journals and publishers regardless of whether they are COPE members. A reference to COPE materials or COPE standards on the journal’s web pages does not, by itself, imply COPE membership. Therefore, it is…- News
Case discussion: Suspected plagiarism
…a cut-off value of 15% to be useful. Well trained editorial and publishing staff could monitor trends in submissions for specific journals to make a good guideline for efficient plagiarism checking. If the editor believes that there was no malicious intent on the part of the authors, an educational approach may be appropriate (e.g., junior researchers, students, first-time authors). The editors… - News
In the news: September 2018 Digest
…communications? https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2018/08/28/all-about-open-annotation/ - News
Case discussion: Editor manipulation of impact factor
…The Forum noted that Clarivate Analytics takes action against journals for citation manipulation. However, because up to 15% of citations are allowed to be journal self-citations, editors could purposefully promote journal self-citation without exceeding that level. A link to the Citation Manipulation section of a Council of Science Editors white paper was provided ( - News
Citations: Link, Locate, Discover, Connect
…Factor denominator.” Learned Publishing 24: 133-137. https://doi.org/10.1087/20110208 [4] http://ipscience-help.thomsonreuters.com/incitesLiveJCR/10667-TRS.html The JIF for 2017 is calculated as the ratio… - News
In the news: April 2020
…="https://wellcome.ac.uk/sites/default/files/what-researchers-think-about-the-culture-they-work-in.pdf" target="_blank">https://wellcome.ac.uk/sites/default/files/what-researchers-think-about-the-culture-they-work-in.pdf An analysis of >2,000 published retractions show that about 15% were by the authors themselves. Even with adequate notices, 91% of retracted articles did not comply with COPE recommendations for retraction transparency and content. Equal Opportunities Policy
…href="https://publicationethics.org/cope-policies">All COPE policies Page history First published: 31 December 2022 Back to top…- News
In the news: April Digest
…-in-suit-alleging-unfair-and-deceptive-practices/ In a topic that will dominate the news for some time to come, multiple publications about Plan S were submitted this month from various sources. A few of note: Institute for Scientific Information (Clarivate) has a 24 page free monograph, The Plan S footprint: Implications for the scholarly publishing landscape. It includes data about the distribution of papers published world wide and in… - News
In the news: December Digest
…and Publication Misconduct The education ministry of South Korea has identified 11 authors (24 papers) who have included non-contributory high school or middle-age children as co-authors of published papers. Presumably this practice is used to help secure university placement for these children. - News
In the news: August 2018 Digest
…one group of authors in Science showed that 1/5 respondents were coerced into adding citations and findings were similar in a study of PLOS ONE authors. The specter of citation cartels among participating journals—you scratch my back, I’ll cite your paper. The author of this post suggests that an automated algorithm, similar to what is used by the US Securities and Exchange Commission to detect…