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In the news: October 2020
…href="https://www.transparimed.org/single-post/2020/09/14/UK-clinical-trial-registration-reporting" target="_blank">100% of all clinical trials registered and their results reported, “In future, the Health Research Authority (HRA) will itself directly register clinical trials based on data submitted during the ethics approval process, which it already centrally archives. All clinical trials will be expected to report their results within 12 months, mirroring the time horizon set out by… - Case
Ethical concerns about a study involving human subjects
A manuscript was submitted to our journal describing a study of a new drug. The manuscript had only one author who gave their affiliation as a company that we can find no record of online. It describes a study in which they appear to have developed a new drug, carried out a toxicology study in mice and then, because no adverse effects were seen, tested it on one patient and five healthy volunte… - Case
Possible self-plagiarism and/or prior publication
In October 2014 it came to our attention via one of the reviewers of a manuscript submitted to our journal that an identical article (100% identical) had been previously published on the website of the author. The submitting author had not made us aware in their submission documentation that the article had been publicly available on their website at the point of submission. Two different but r… - Case
Dispute arising from peer review of a rejected comment and published correction
…the publication of the correction, with a view to republishing the correction to clarify both the scientific record and the sequence of events. This has resulted in a great deal of time and effort being expended on several draft statements prepared by the journal over the previous 14 months. As the matter remains unresolved between the two groups, the journal’s team has elected to publish… - Case
Coauthor fails to respond to request to confirm coauthorship
Prior to publication, our journal requires coauthors to respond to an email to confirm their authorship status and the author list. A coauthor did not respond to these emails, and when we contacted the corresponding author for help, s/he told us that his/her attempts to reach the coauthor have failed, and that s/he believed the coauthor was attempting to hold the paper hostage. According… - Flowcharts
All Flowcharts
…="https://publicationethics.org/resources/translated-resources/japanese-all-flowcharts">Japanese | Persian | Polish | Spanish | Turkish… - 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… Outcomes of editors' attempts to investigate research misconduct
…Plagiarism 7 2 2 2 14% Total (%) 79 16 (20) 15 (19) 23 (29) 36 (46) In about one in five cases, the individual was exonerated. But in about 20% of cases,…- News
Standards in Authorship webinar summary
…(Consortia Advancing Standards in Research Administration Information) initiative that consolidates this drive further with a 14-term taxonomy of ‘contributorship roles’ for those involved in research. Image: Jorge Cham Critically, the information on roles is embedded in the article’s metadata and can be linked to an author’s individual ORCID. Of the webinar attendees, 58% were already… - News
In the news: May 2021
Each month, COPE Council members find and share publication ethics news. This month the news includes articles on peer review, preprints, open access, and more. Authorship This paper published in the Indian Journal of Gastroenterology and aimed at educating postgraduate scientists… - News
In the news: July 2021
…tenure decisions. This index can be gamed by excessive self-citation and there are instances of authors adding references at the revision stage of the peer review process after there is likely to be scrutiny of the reference list, producing in an “h-index factory“. The author proposes for these, and other reasons cited in the post, that the community of researchers and publishers need to “ - Forum discussion topics
Systematic manipulation of the publishing process via “paper mills”
…is not necessarily a sign of a paper mill submission but if there are other red flags, it can be useful. Some additional features have been added. The original features for the tool were to protect against reviewer fraud and a report would only be issued after peer review. A new setting (low, medium, high) can raise an alert if there is a high rate of submission from the same device. Would it be… - News
In the news: November 2020
…-massive-database-retracted-papers-reveals-about-science-publishing-s-death-penalty" target="_blank">Notable findings include: the rate of increase of retractions has slowed; the continued increase seems to reflect improved oversight at a growing number of journals; more editors should take this seriously; about 1/4 of 10,500 retractions analysed were authored by a small number of individuals, usually the result of deliberate misconduct; retraction rates differ by country; many retractions are due… Terms and conditions
…membership Members shall have a right to cancel their membership within 14 days of receipt of their acceptance letter and receive a full refund (if applicable). For further information, please contact COPE. Back to top Termination of membership A member…- Seminars and webinars
Inclusive language: policing or progressive?
…recommendations The diversity and innovation paradox PNAS research article Finding pathways to equity recommendation from Society Publishers' Coalition … - News
Case Discussion: Lack of trial registration leads to new concerns about study conduct and ethical review/approval
…institution, who was not a co-author and wished to remain anonymous, informed the editors that the ethics committee named in the article did not exist at the institution. After not hearing back from the authors, the editors added a Comment to the article alerting readers of non-adherence to clinical trial requirements. The authors later said that ethics approval had been granted by another… - News
Where next in peer review? Part 2: COPE commentary
…knowledge to fully understand the capabilities and threats presented by AI. On the potential for personal information to make its way back into training data, for example, Dustin Smith (a self-declared ‘AI optimist’) was quite clear. Where LLMs are trained on closed data sets (that is, with no new information added to it over time), there is little risk of material submitted to it reappearing in… Membership application FAQ
…membership is accepted? When your application is accepted, you will receive an email confirming this. You will receive a link to COPE’s Member Handbook which details the benefits of being a COPE member as well as how to manage your membership. If membership fees are applicable, an invoice will be sent to you. Once your membership fees are paid, your journal details will be added to our…- Case
Request for a retraction of a retraction
In October 2000, a journal published a retraction of a February 2000 publication of a research paper. In the same issue the dean of the corresponding author’s medical school reported the findings of an investigational committee that found, contrary to what was stated in the paper: · There was no ethics committee… - Seminars and webinars
Webinar 2022: Managing paper mills
…href="https://publicationethics.org/resources/forum-discussions/expressions-of-concern">Expressions of concern, COPE Forum discussion 2018 Audience questions Following the presentations the audience asked the speakers questions, some of which were answered during the webinar. Time on recording: 54:14-1:21:00 The speakers very kindly answered questions we didn't get to on the day: Can you give examples of competing interests…