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 ( - 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)… - News
Case discussion: Consequence for dual submission
…case is archived in the COPE Forum Cases section of the COPE website under the key terms of “Allegations of misconduct” and “Post-publication discussions and corrections”, which are two of the 10 COPE Core Practices: Allegations of… - 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… 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… - Case
Concerns over research by an author in numerous, separate publications
The authenticity of the content of numerous publications by Author K has been questioned by ‘concerned researchers’ in an anonymous email sent to the Editor of Journal A in December 2009. The email noted that author K had been publishing articles in numerous journals that “report remarkable findings that watching humorous films, drinking deep-sea water, exposure to road traffic, cell-pho… - News
Facilitation & Integrity 2023, a year in review
…F&I cases are classified by the concern raised by the presenter. So far in 2023 there have been 10 types of concern which have attracted five or more cases. These are: Handling of retractions and expressions of concern (20 cases). Concerns about Integrity of published work, including potential manipulation of data or images (14 cases)… Equal Opportunities Policy
…href="https://publicationethics.org/cope-policies">All COPE policies Page history First published: 31 December 2022 Back to top…- News
Case discussion: Editor manipulation of impact factor
…journal-level citation metrics are widely quoted as an indicator of journal influence, but also widely misused in research evaluation systems. They are known to be prone to manipulation, such that Clarivate Analytics suppresses titles from its Journal… - Forum discussion topics
What does peer review mean in the arts, humanities and social sciences?
…The recent hoax article problem with respect to fake articles on diversity, inclusivity and identity politics also challenged the merit, quality and legitimacy of the scope and standards of some types of journals, including those that publish feminist scholarship. Recently, this… - Forum discussion topics
Bias in peer review
…class="resource-download-inline__type"> Presentation Bias in peer review presentation PPTX 10 MB