- 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
Dealing with complaints about the integrity of published research
…misconduct. The roles of each party involved in handling these complaints (Editor/Journal, Publisher, Institution) are set out in the CLUE Guidelines. All requests should be considered, and investigated if they have credibility and are about research integrity in a publication. Acknowledge receipt and investigate… - Forum discussion topics
Editorial conflicts of interest
…absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } .embedtool .fluid-vids {position: initial !important} /*-->*/ COPE Forum discussion To maintain credibility, scholarly publications need to make the utmost effort to be transparent… - Case
Author non-disclosure by editor in chief
Please note, this case is being submitted by the Publishing Director of the journal based on the advice of a senior COPE member because it relates to the conduct of the editor in chief of the journal. The editor in chief of the journal is aware that the case is being submitted. A letter of complaint was submitted in November 2009 relating to an editorial published in one of our journals,… - Case
HIV homeopathy
The authors carried out a study. A homeopathic treatment was given to people with HIV/AIDs. The outcome was quality of life, as measured by a questionnaire after 1 month and 18 months of treatment. Participants were selected for inclusion if they had a HIV seropositive status at the time of study and were not taking any other kind of HIV/AIDs treatment. The participants were stratified i… - Case
Retractions of primary literature papers: how should a review journal react?
In a recent and very prominent case of publication misconduct resulting in the retraction of 12 research papers (to date), many journals have been included in ‘round-mails’ from the whistleblower and other scientists. Our journal (a reviews and features journal) has published a review from the main author associated with the misconduct, which contains reference to six of the retracted papers. - Case
A case of salami slicing
A reviewer of our journal noticed similarity between a published paper (P1) and a manuscript under review (P2). At the same time, a member of the editorial team noticed similarity between another accepted manuscript for publication (P3) and both paper P1 and manuscript P2. All three papers were submitted by the same authors based on the same trial, reporting three different endpoints measuring… - Case
Inability to contact an author to obtain permission to publish
Author A was an overseas PhD student who successfully completed the PhD, and then returned home to a country with considerable political and civil unrest. It had been intended to submit a paper before author A left but time ran out. Subsequently, authors B, C, D and E, who were all involved in the work in one form or another (experimental design, performing preliminary experiments, data interpr… - News
COPE at COMPARE Life Sciences Workshop on Authorship, UK
…href="https://publicationethics.org/authorship"> authorship and contributorship.QUT resources on authorship and publication. Elizabeth Moylan, Chair, Education subcommittee… - Webform
COPE peer review workshop 2020
Registration is now closed as the workshop is full Peer review workshop Thursday 24 September 2020, 4.00pm - 5.15pm (BST), online workshop (COPE Members only) This year's Peer Review Week is dedicated to 'Trust in peer review'. Peer Review… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: September 2022
Welcome to our annual edition of Digest celebrating Peer Review Week (19-23 September). This year’s theme is “Research Integrity: Creating and supporting trust in research”. As part of Peer Review Week, COPE is hosting a webinar on managing paper… - Case
Editor as author
…years. Patients as authors is becoming a standard in medicine as can be seen in this discussion. The BMJ Publishing Group has a campaign for patient-partnership. The editor should… - Case
Author accused of sexual harassment
…="https://web.archive.org/web/20211105032210/https://retractionwatch.com/2021/08/04/should-journals-retract-when-an-author-is-sent-to-prison-for-a-crime-unrelated-to-their-work/">similar issue on Retraction Watch: Discussions on how to handle this and similar cases touch on the frequent lack of definite evidence or the fact that formal cases may still be open or being appealed. Those accused, whether formally or informally, may… - Seminars and webinars
Introduction to publication ethics and the COPE ethics toolkit
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Ethical concerns in research on urbanisation: perspectives from the Global South
…/*-->*/ /*-->*/ Back to top Collaborative research agenda Focusing on urban studies… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: October 2020
…href="https://publicationethics.org/publishers-perspective-paper-mills">publisher perspective that describes collective actions required to help address these issues. Finally, my congratulations to Michal Tal-Socher and Adrian Ziderman, authors of a paper funded by a COPE research grant. Their paper, Data sharing policies in scholarly publications: interdisciplinary comparisons, has been… - Webform
COPE peer review workshop, November 2020
…Peer review workshop Thursday 19 November 2020, online workshop 9.00am - 10.30am (GMT) (COPE Members only) REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED AS WORKSHOP IS FULL Following on from the success of our Peer Review Workshop during this year’s Peer Review Week, COPE is re-running… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: February 2022
…10 May. Hope to see you, virtually, there. Once again, COPE will be supporting the World Conference on Research Integrity, in May this year, as a Rhino sponsor. The conference's overarching theme is “Fostering research integrity in an unequal world”. The conference will be a hybrid event with… - Case
Potential redundant publication
A group of authors from the same specialty unit published a study in Journal A on all prehospital X procedures. They then sent another paper on X procedure in a subgroup of patients to Journal B. Paper B references paper A, but does not make it apparent that there is any overlap in these studies. On questioning by editor B, they stated that no patients in paper B were included in the previous s… - Case
Ethical approval and parental consent
A journal received a paper from a single author, attributed to a UK institution, in which 10 children were operated on using two techniques, each child having one technique to one side and one to the other side, at the same operation. The paper went to review, and neither reviewer spotted that this was a prospective surgical study on children, with no mention of consent or ethical…