- Case
Should stockholders of a pharmaceutical industry declare conflicts of interest in a research paper?
…information about conflict of interests and/or state which style guide it follows? Many biomedical journals follow the AMA Manual of Style which includes the following in section 5.5 of the current 10th edition: 'Financial interests may include but are not limited to employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, expert testimony, royalties, patents (filed, pending, or registered), grants, and… - 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… - News
In the news: August 2018 Digest
…the first or first ten papers that show up on a search. In any case, which papers are cited by an author may have a complex set of reasons and is worth considering.http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2014/10/12/what-drives-academic-citations/#.W2wCTdhKit… - News
Case discussion: self-plagiarism and suspected salami publishing
…case, as well as in two previous COPE Forum cases: one of alleged self-plagiarism of a student thesis (10-18 self plagiarism) and one of alleged self-plagiarism/redundancy because of a previously posted paper on a personal webpage ( 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:Outcomes of editors' attempts to investigate research misconduct
…Lasted >1 year Redundancy 33 7 3 4 48% Unethical research 16 5 4 7 25% Fraud 13 2 2 4 62% Med negligence 10 0 4 6 70% …- News
Letter from the COPE Chair: December 2020
…quality standards from EASE and a Neurología article calling for consideration for the role of editors during the pandemic, among many other initiatives. In May, arXiv, medRxiv, bioRxiv, and other preprint platforms adjusted their policies to not accept… - News
In the news: February 2021
…people from low socioeconomic backgrounds, people with disabilities, primary caregivers, people who identify as LGBTQ+, and people in a low or lower middle income country. The next deadline is March 10. Research integrity The John Maddox Prize is a joint initiative of the charity Sense about… - Case
Mislabelling/duplicate images
…papers. On the poster article, because it involved 10 images, I also plan to include, with the correction, a statement to the effect that a committee was appointed by author X’s institute to investigate the mislabelling and that they found no evidence of malicious intent (I’m wary of the wording I use here). I also want to reprint the poster and send a copy of it to each of our print… - Case
Misattributed authorship and unauthorized use of data
…expression of concern. Unauthorized use of data came up as a prime issue in a recent study of the re-classification of the COPE cases in the past 10 years. Also, the Montreal statement on research integrity in cross boundary research collaborations came out of this year’s World Conference on Research Integrity ( - Forum discussion topics
Claiming institutional affiliations
…-in-a-name-how-false-author-affiliations-are-damaging-academic-research/">What’s in a name? How false author affiliations are damaging academic research Vivienne C. Bachelet, LSE Blog Misrepresentation of institutional affliations: The results from an exploratory case study of Chilean authors Research article Octopus… - Case
Concern about reporting of a trial and also its DSMB
We received a paper reporting a trial. There has only been one previous trial of this intervention in this condition that we know of (which was also done by these investigators). There were substantial issues with the reporting of that trial but the end result, as reported by them, favoured the intervention. The trial we received, presumably approved after that result had come out, had… - 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)… - Forum discussion topics
Artificial intelligence (AI) and fake papers
…Chatbots in Relation to Scholarly Publications OpenAI’s image-creation tool DALL-E2 VC Bachelet and M. Rousseau-Portalis. A technology-based, financially sustainable, quality improvement intervention in a medical journal for bilingualism from submission to… - Case
Suspect author
Author A has published approximately 150 original articles since ~1994, with ~100 on one particular topic. Since some of these events were up to 16 years ago, and there are no formal records from then relating to these studies, the only information we have is the memory of the editors of the affected journals in post at the time. According to their accounts, suspicions were aroused over the val… - 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 … 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: Lack of trial registration leads to new concerns about study conduct and ethical review/approval
…="https://publicationethics.org/files/General_Approach_To_Publication_Ethics_For_Editorial_Office.pdf" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">General Approach to Publication Ethics for the Editorial Office”. Offices of non-COPE journals can align their policies and procedures with the 10 COPE Core Practices and link to COPE resources (but not reproduce or copy them or misuse the COPE logo). They… Projects Funded
…guidance about this. Anecdotal evidence suggests that editors may be reluctant to retract articles because of concerns about litigation or uncertainty about the correct procedures. We are therefore examining retractions to understand journals’ current practices and any difficulties faced by editors. We are examining all retractions published on Medline in the last 10 years and categorising them according…- News
Case discussion: Suspected plagiarism
…discipline. The similarity index needs to be reviewed carefully, and experienced editors will look at all aspects of the article and the sources when deciding if there is significant overlap. Is there a minimum cut-off score below which there is no need to check for plagiarism? One study found…