- Case
Deceased author and author delaying publication
The journal accepted a manuscript for publication with two authors. One of the authors died before signing the copyright. This manuscript is now ready for galley proof approval from the surviving author. Proofs were sent to the surviving author and the author who died as normal because the production editor assigned to this manuscript did not know that one of the authors had died. After… - Case
Ukrainian authors request retraction of article in Russian conference proceedings
A journal has been contacted by a group of authors from Ukraine who wish to retract their article because of acute ethical issues in relation to the war with Russia. The authors are employees of a research institute in Ukraine. When preparing their article they were not fully informed about the country of the organisers of the conference. They are concerned that participation in a Russian confe… - Case
Conflict of interest
After peer-review, a general medical journal published a household survey of violence following a coup against the country’s elected President. The survey revealed high levels of violence and human rights abuses, only a small minority of which were attributed to supporters of the deposed regime. The manuscript stated that none of the interviewers had political affiliations and the authors decla… - Case
Retraction or correction?
A publisher received communication alleging that a published article in one of their journals contained large portions of text taken without attribution from another article. Upon review of these allegations, it was determined that a table in the article had been reproduced. In the table the authors did not put direct quoted material within quote marks or otherwise identify the quoted material… - Seminars and webinars
Artificial intelligence and peer review
…to improve language, AI can reduce the risk of mis-evaluation of scholarly research and bring great benefits to the community. Back to top Further reading A survey of large language models Weixin Lang et al - News
New: Chinese resources
…="https://publicationethics.org/files/Ethical_Guidlines_for_PeerReviewers_Chinese_Web.pdf">Ethical guidelines for peer reviewers Discussion document: What constitutes authorship? Flowcharts: Complete set of flowcharts - News
In the news: August 2021
…journals, and other organisations represents a commitment to creating a more inclusive culture in STEM fields and STEM publishing in particular. The participating national laboratories will facilitate requests for name changes for any reason, including religious, marital, or… - News
Case discussion: repeated complaints about a review
…Case summary Case 11-07 A reader, whose identity was unclear, alerted a journal about an author who had recently been found guilty of publication misconduct and had had a dozen papers retracted. Subsequently, the reader repeatedly… - News
Diversity in Peer Review: Survey Results
…nominating/selecting members for its peer reviewer pool (25%) …has diversity policies for selecting peer reviewers when evaluating individual manuscripts/applications (26%) …provides in-house training to promote diversity and inclusion in peer review (13%) …provides training to potential peer reviewers, to promote diversity in its peer review pool (14%) • Additional… - News
Case Discussion: Withdrawal of paper at proof stage
Case Summary Case 19-11 An original paper was submitted to a journal, peer reviewed, revised by the authors, and accepted by the manuscript editor. It was scheduled for publication 3 months later. After the paper was copyedited and typeset, the corresponding author was… Diversity policy
…the Executive Officer or to a COPE Officer. Please refer to the grievance policy (being reviewed) for details. Related content Other COPE policies Page history First published 10 September 2022 Back to top…Submitting a guest editorial or opinion piece to COPE
…any loss or damage caused or occasioned as a result of the publication of a guest editorial or opinion article. Publication history This policy will be reviewed and updated at the discretion of the editors. Published: 25 January 2022 Updated: 20 June 2023…- News
Guest article: Detecting integrity issues
…href="https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts/systematic-manipulation-publication-process">Systematic manipulation of the publication process, COPE guidance 2022 The evolving relationship between universities and scholarly publishers, COPE Seminar Keynote address 2021… - Case
Possible peer review manipulation
A journal received a complaint by one of the co-authors of an article submitted by a research team, stating that one of the reviewers suggested by the corresponding author sent an email to corresponding author asking them to tell them what comments they should insert in their review. In response, the corresponding author asked the co-authors to propose comments to be sent to the reviewer. One o… - Case
Is there a time limit for submitting a critique of a published article?
A letter to the editor was submitted to a journal with a comment referring to a study published a year previously. The reader raised concerns about the study and interpretation of the results. The editors of the journal examined the peer review comments of the manuscript and found that the aspects in question were missed out. The journal sought expert advice from an independent reviewer who com… FORUM DISCUSSION TOPIC: Issues related to papers submitted to “discussion” journals
…discussion section of the journal Within 2-8 weeks, the paper is up online with a DOI, ready for the open peer review process Two referees are invited to post their reviews online Anyone else can comment on the paper whilst it is going through review A decision is made on the paper based on the review comments, with the normal “major,” “minor,” “accept” and “reject”…- News
Core Practices
…and, most importantly, continually revised library. Within COPE’s core practices is a suite of documents including over 500 cases, 20 flowcharts (in multiple languages), 11 guidance documents, and much more. The ten core practices are: - Case
Question of paper retraction due to proven fabricated data
…errors in the trial call the study’s reliability into question. Provides transcript of relevant court ruling. This makes it clear that the author became an expert witness in February 2007, after publication of paper but before submission of the letter. He clearly became an expert witness on the basis of the study. Transcript says that author acknowledges inaccuracies—11 of 27 patients who originally… - Case
Plagiarism of reviewer's work
Several Europe-based authors, including well known, respected and much published ones, submitted an essay for the journal's section on research methodology. We rejected it without external review as it wasn't making sufficiently new points. We offered to see it again, however, if it was revised and if it added some worked examples using this methodology within published studies. A year l… - Case
Possible overlapping publications/data
As editor-in-chief of a journal (journal A), I was contacted by an individual (N) who indicated the following: authors of an article published in journal A were questioned as to the similarity of a figure and a table appearing in both journal A and in another journal (journal B). N noted that reanalysis of the data of the published work by the authors suggested errors and inconsistencies of the…