- Case
The author not affiliated to an institution
A contribution about training in family medicine training was published in a journal. Subsequently, a letter from the chairman of the department of family medicine at the university with which the author claimed to have been affiliated, said that the author did not work there. The author was asked for an explanation. He replied that he had done it involuntarily and that he would be happy for… - Case
Obtaining consent for a study of people with severe learning disabilities
…the research 'can go ahead without the need for Ethical approval'. The editor presumed this was because the research was being done for operational/service reasons. The editor’s main ethical concern was that consent from the individual patients had not been obtained, to which the authors responded that it was not possible to obtain consent as the participants’ learning difficulties were too severe.… Online learning: Request for proposals
…Publication ethics training for research integrity officers We are no longer accepting proposals from providers of online training courses as the deadline has passed. COPE are looking for a UK-based partner to provide content for an online training course to cover publication ethics issues. The course will be designed for research integrity officers (RIOs) who are…- News
What to do if you suspect systematic manipulation of the publication process
…affecting the publishing industry. This editorial describes what it is, why it is difficult for individual journal editors and publishers to handle and the background to the development of the new Terms and conditions
…Terms and conditions of membership for universities and research institutes These terms and conditions govern your membership with us. Membership You will be a ‘Full General Member’ of COPE. Provisions relating to this category and any sub-categories of membership shall be contained in COPE’s Regulations and…- Case
No ethics committee approval or informed consent
… If the data came from an audit/questionnaire/survey neither consent nor ethics committee approval would have been required. From the synopsis of this case, however, the patients did appear to have actively participated. The medical director of the hospital should also be informed. Inform the authors that the hospital’s chief executive has been contacted.… - Case
Consideration of publishing raw data
…the authors to go back and obtain ethics approval to publish raw data? If so, does the author have to go back to the original ethics committee? · Also, does one allow the authors to publish only “relevant” data or does one require all of the data generated from the trial to be published?… - Case
WAME case
This case was posted on the WAME (World Association of Medical Editors) list-serv and the editor (from India) asked whether COPE could provide guidance. An author (who happens to also be a journal editor) submitted a manuscript to a journal listed in one of the major medical databases. Having heard nothing for several months he tried to contact the editor to discover what was happening.… - Case
Data fabrication in a rejected manuscript
…an investigation. However, this investigation exonerated the lead author from misconduct, who went on to publish one of these manuscripts elsewhere and is still publishing suspicious manuscripts in other journals. Question(s) for the COPE Forum • Should other journals be warned about this case so that they can take a view about further submissions? • Should anyone else… - Case
Withdrawal of acceptance based on potentially unconsented data
…even a research type letter, the authors could remove the affected material and references, without referring to the retracted papers. If the letters cite the papers in the context of journalology, or criticise the same issues that underlie later retraction, it could be argued the letters could stay, with an explanatory editorial note (see for example - Case
Should stockholders of a pharmaceutical industry declare conflicts of interest in a research paper?
…conflict of interest. Furthermore, some of the authors of the paper have editorial positions in journal B which should be investigated in terms of publication misconduct. The editor-in-chief of journal B has no relationship with company B. Some of the authors of the three articles are stockholders of company B, which holds the intellectual property of the generic medicine A. Author A was… FORUM DISCUSSION TOPIC: comments please
…misconduct have no place in research. Contrast that with the situation when a crime is committed. Most places, when a crime is committed, punishment results, and after some time that person is allowed back into society. Indeed, in some jurisdictions, if the crime was not severe, after some period following expiry of the sentence a “spent conviction” may be recorded. That is, history of the misdeed will be…- Case
Misuse of post-publication literature evaluation service
…together with the conflict of interest noted, there can be no argument. The committee felt that editors shouldn’t be excluded from evaluating articles in their own journals, especially in the case of highly specialist fields, but the evaluator must declare a conflict of interest. One solution would be to obtain two separate evaluations, but again a conflict of interest must be declared. It was suggested… - Case
Query about errata
Your retraction guidelines include comments about corrections. They also advise that notices of retraction should be linked to the original retracted articles. But, it is not 100% clear whether notices of correction (that is, errata and corrigenda, as opposed to retractions) should also be linked directly to/embedded in the… - Case
Retraction of article and accompanying editorial
Advice on this case is from a small number of COPE Council Members. Most cases on the COPE website are presented to the COPE Forum where advice is offered by a wider group of COPE Members and COPE Council Members. Advice on individual cases is not formal COPE guidance. Reasons for retractions should be clearly spelled out… - Forum discussion topics
Systematic manipulation of the publishing process via “paper mills”
…Paper mills are profit oriented, unofficial and potentially illegal organisations that produce and sell fraudulent manuscripts that seem to resemble genuine research. They may also handle the administration of submitting the article to journals for review and sell authorship to researchers once the article is accepted for publication. Indications that manuscripts may be produced by a paper mill are… - Event
Next COPE Forum: 3 June 2013
The next COPE Forum will be on Monday 3 June. This will held in the Council Chamber, The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), 5-11 Theobalds Road, London WC1X 8SH… - News
Second issue of COPE Digest published
The second issue of COPE Digest: Publication Ethics in Practice has now been published. It can be read here: http://publicationethics.org/cope-newsletter… - Event
Peer review workshop
COPE members: join us for an online workshop during Peer Review Week. We will be working through peer review cases submitted by members, share in the discussion and suggest what the editor(s) should do next.… - Case
Duplicate submission to two journals and previous duplicate publication uncovered
…publication. The authors replied, apologising for the error, which had been due to “hurry and inattentiveness, ” adding: “that the predicament is entirely due to circumstances beyond our intention. ” They requested that the paper be withdrawn. An explanation for the previous episode of duplicate submission was not given, although they said that they had sent a detailed letter to the editors of both journals,…