- Case
Reviewer requests to be added as an author after publication
A paper was submitted to our journal. The associate editor assigned to the paper immediately assigned a reviewer who he knew was well qualified to give a good review, as they had worked with the authors before. The editor did think it odd that the reviewer was not an author on this particular paper, given the close collaboration. However, when invited, the reviewer (R1), did not flag up any con… - 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… - Case
Data fabrication, lack of ethical approval, withdrawal of paper and publication in another journal
This query refers to a clinical trial comparing two forms of treatment which has since been published in another journal. I originally received this manuscript in 2009. One of the referees alerted me to the fact that the data looked strange. Furthermore, the test and controls groups were perfectly distributed, which is almost impossible. Along with the usual requests for modifications, I… - Case
What extent of plagiarism demands a retraction versus correction?
A short research article described a new method and tested the method, showing proof-of-concept that the method worked; the idea for the method is presented as the authors’ own. On publication, the paper receives an overwhelmingly positive response from the community. Shortly after publication, the editorial team is contacted by a PhD student and their supervisor who had published the id… - News
In the news: May 2021
…Peer Community In Registered Reports, has launched to provide peer review on behalf of publishers for Registered Reports. 15 journals including BMJ Open and Royal Society Open Science have signed up to use the service. A description of the new service is here. Allegations… - Case
Possible violation of the Helsinki Declaration on Scientific Research with Humans
A manuscript underwent peer review and the resulting reviewer comments raised grave concerns about the ethical legitimacy of the study.The reviewer: questioned the authors’ impartiality, suggesting that there was an undeclared conflict of interest; raised serious concerns about the extent to which participants gave informed consent; strongly doubted that the… - Case
Suspected image manipulation involving four journals
Editorial office staff at journal A noticed possible image manipulation in two figures of a new paper submitted by author X. These suspected manipulations involved images of gels which appeared to contain multiple duplicated bands. This prompted editorial staff to look at the submission history of author X to journal A in more detail. It was found that author X had previously submitted t… - Seminars and webinars
Seminar 2021: Introduction to publication ethics
…10px; float: left; width: 90px; height: 90px;" />Simon Linacre is Director of International Marketing & Development at Cabells having previously spent 15 years at Emerald Publishing, where he had direct experience in journal acquisitions, open access and business development. Simon is an ALPSP tutor, currently leading courses… - Case
Call for retraction of a commentary
A journal received two emails from different individuals, both critical of a commentary published in the journal. One cited serious errors, the other noted inaccurate statements, incorrect literature citations and fundamental flaws regarding misinterpretations or over-interpretations which could affect public health. The second email also cited the potential for the commentary to be used for (u… - News
Guest article: Avoiding predatory publishers
…because all the translations have been provided by volunteer researchers and librarians. Think.Check.Submit. exists because of the support of nine industry organizations - Case
Mislabelling/duplicate images
We were contacted by a reader who told us that he had spotted a number of cases of image duplication and mislabelling of fluorescent tags that had occurred over the past 4 years. These involved two papers published in our journal, and two other papers published in two different journals. The two papers in our journal were both reviews, and the one that had the most occurrences involved a poster… - Case
Inappropriate authorship on students paper
A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study which was a final year student's project was submitted as an original article to our journal on 30 April 2011. On initial review it was obvious that it was conducted by students and written by them, but the list of authors had the supervisor as the first author, followed by 13 students. The supervisor, who was also the corresponding author, wa… - Case
Meta-analysis: submission of unreliable findings
A meta-analysis was conducted of about 1000 patients included in a number of small trials of a drug for emergency management administered by route X compared with route Y. The report concluded that administration by route X improves short term survival. Chronology The paper was submitted to our journal in September 2011 and after peer review was retur… - Case
Suspect author
…suspicions. Options for gathering more data include asking the original correspondent and the systematic reviewer to provide a more formal commentary, although we have not done that yet. Meanwhile, one of the editors has gathered data on all author A’s studies: there are 135 in which author A is the first author, reporting almost 12,000 randomised patients in 17 years. Most are with one of the same three… - Case
Professional misconduct of one author
We are a scholarly publishing platform. We have recently encountered a unique case in which an author wishes to be removed from a published article due to allegations that have been made in the public domain about the lead and corresponding author. The first version of the article in question was published in 2017, with subsequent versions. Since then, the lead author of the artic… - News
Case Discussion: Ethics of non-active management of a control group
…Case summary Case 17-21 An article was submitted involving over 200 pregnant patients with a systemic illness (from 2010 to 2015) who were recruited and assigned to a control group or an active intervention group (of their systemic illness). The control group received routine antenatal… - News
In the news: November 2020
…-one-largest-research-philanthropies-will-require-immediate-open-access" target="_blank">make their research immediately open access, as of January 2022. The new policies are similar to those of cOAlition S and are anticipated to put pressure on some very elite journals, such as Cell, Nature and Science. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has changed their open… Terms and conditions
…href="#Top">Back to top Related pages Membership: universities and research institutes Page history Page last updated: 27 May 2022…New UK Panel for Research Integrity
…area of greatest need first, expanding to others if we can clearly demonstrate the usefulness of such a move. Of the 66 allegations reported, a prima facie case was established after a stage I investigation in 35 cases, and in 19 cases, the allegations were upheld in full. Contact was made with the Department of Health at an early stage. It was clear that they…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: