- Case
Request to withdraw as an author of an accepted but unpublished paper
Last March we accepted a paper written by a post-doctoral fellow (PD) and an assistant professor (AP). The work was done by PD in AP's laboratory; PD has now moved on (to another country, in fact). Soon after the manuscript was sent to production, AP sent an email asking to delay production of the manuscript because AP was worried that there may be an ‘error’ in the manuscript that might requir… - News
Letter from the COPE co-Chairs: August 2018
…margin-right:3px; width:90px" /> Read August 2018 Digest: Citation Manipulation … - News
Letter from the COPE co-Chairs: February 2019
…margin-right: 3px; float: left;" /> Read February 2019 Digest newsletter on the… - News
Letter from the COPE co-Chairs: March 2019
…href="https://mailchi.mp/publicationethics/authorship-cope-digest-march-2019">Read March 2019 Digest newsletter on the topic of Authorship with a case discussion, news roundup, more details on our Allegations of Misconduct webinar. Get dates in the diary for COPE events in 2019, particularly our North American Seminar and European Seminar, and keep abreast of news & events in #PublicationEthics… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: May 2019
…style="border-style:solid; border-width:2px; float:left; height:121px; margin:3px; width:90px" />COPE Chair Deborah Poff Read May 2019 Digest newsletter for a discussion on… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: September 2019
…href="https://publicationethics.org/about/council/deborah-poff-0">Deborah Poff Read September 2019 Digest newsletter celebrating Peer Review Week. Nancy Chescheir's blog empahises the good work done in peer review and some of the ethical breaches that can occur. We share COPE guidance and support on peer review and responses from AHSS editors… - News
Letter from the COPE Vice-Chair: May 2020
…topic is "What peer review means in the arts, humanities and social sciences" and we welcome comments on our website.With a roundup of recent publication ethics news around authorship, data sharing and COVID-19. Read May Digest: Authorship… - 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… History and context of the COPE guidelines
…Publication Practice and underwent wide consultation with COPE Council and with editors and publishers. It was published on the first COPE website in November 2004, with an Editorial in the BMJ. The original Code of Conduct (PDF, 212 KB) is linked here for reference but is now…- Case
Allegation of reviewer malpractice
…other was general and positive, and recommended publication. It emerged in court that the positive review came from an individual who was working on behalf of the plaintiffs as a paid expert and who “had had a relationship with the study author for more than 10 years. ” The primary question from the overseas colleague is whether the reviewer was nominated by the author or was chosen quite… - Case
Possible dual publication
As editor of journal A I am handling a manuscript by an author and it is likely to be accepted, although this is not yet decided. As a reviewer for journal B, I have since been asked to review a manuscript by the same author that uses similar material and comes to a similar conclusion, but pushes the presentation of the results a little further. My gut feeling is that there is insufficient nove… - Case
Supervisor publishes PhD students work
The PhD supervisor and a co-supervisor published a paper. The paper contained the work of a PhD student; approximately 90% of the paper was from the thesis. The PhD student found out when the paper was electronically pre-published. He contacted the supervisor. The supervisor’s first reaction was “How did you find out”? The supervisor did not want to include the PhD student as an author since he… - Case
Paper B plagiarised paper A: what to do if a journal does not respond?
The author X of a paper published by journal A complained to the editor-in-chief of journal A that his/her paper has been plagiarised by a paper that has been published later by journal B. Moreover, the authors of the paper in journal B allegedly did not respond to letters sent by author X asking for an explanation about the apparent plagiarism. The editor-in-chief of journal A compared… - Case
Exposing citation manipulation and fraud in the community
A publisher has identified a ring of three individuals who acted as guest editors for three special issues. These individuals used nine fake accounts to peer review manuscripts. For some manuscripts, the fake identities were used alongside legitimate reviewers, while in other cases they were used exclusively. The publisher has also identified several submissions to those special issues where th… - Case
Data availability for vulnerable populations
A paper on a vulnerable population was published in a journal. The journal followed their usual procedures for processing papers on vulnerable populations, by requesting and reviewing further information on the ethics approval and consent procedures of the study (e.g.: recruitment procedures; blank version of the consent document participants read and signed; the study protocol that was approve… Membership: universities and research institutes
COPE announced the launch of membership for selected universities and research institutes in May 2022. An initial group of universities and research institutes have joined as members and will help ensure that the dedicated resources provide the appropriate support and guidance that universities and research institutes need: Aston University |Seminars
…href="/files/u661/Pieter_Dremth_presentation_final.pdf">Download presentation [PDF 156kB] COPE’s new ethical guidelines for peer reviewers: background, issues and evolution —Dr Irene Hames, COPE council member and former managing editor of The Plant Journal Download presentation [PDF 400kB] Good practices from 10 years of addressing student plagiarism — Gill Rowell,…- Case
Critical comment and conflict of interest
Journal A received an article by Dr X (Article 1) commenting on another author’s work (Dr. Y) which had been published in Journal A and another journal (Journal B) of a different publisher. Because the scientific arguments were involved, and because the articles being criticised had been cited many times in the literature, the Editors of Journal A rejected Dr X's request to publish the work as… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: December 2019
…making' which we summarise and invite you to add your comments. Join us in determining the next steps for our fictional research integrity officer, Jo, who we introduced in March this year. Plus the monthly news roundup and events coming up in 2020. Read December Digest: Top 5 cases 2019…