- News
In the news: November 2018 Digest
…-massive-database-retracted-papers-reveals-about-science-publishing-s-death-penalty" target="_blank">An analysis of the database was published in the journal Science. This concludes that the increase in retractions in recent years might reflect better editorial practices. Not all retractions involve misconduct, 40% of the retractions in the database are due to errors, problems with reproducibility, and other issues. Around 50% of the retractions are due to “fabrication, falsification, or… - News
In the news: August 2021
…/07/landmark-research-integrity-survey-finds-questionable-practices-are-surprisingly-common" target="_blank">engaging in questionable research practices, whilst 8% admit to committing more serious fabricating or falsifying research results during the last three years. The research has been published on MetaArxiv in two preprints, one looking at the - Case
Author retracts request to be removed from author list
…committee will be asked to investigate and give guidance on whether or not the research is reliable or requires retraction. We have chosen to seek advice from the COPE Forum prior to doing this. We need guidance on how best to proceed in a manner that ensures scientific integrity of the journal and treats all authors fairly. As we see it, there are four courses of action. Retract the… - News
Case discussion: gift authorship
…publishing ethics and industry best practices. The shared goal is to help improve the integrity of the research record, and one step on that path is to facilitate greater transparency, accountability, and accurate recognition of authorship. Back to top Is there any way to systematically identify the most prolific authors? At present, to our knowledge, there are no… eLearning
…Given the time pressures on editors and the fact that COPE has members around the world, we have developed an eLearning programme for editors. This programme aims to give editors a deeper understanding about publication ethics and practical guidance about how to detect, prevent and handle misconduct. The programme will cover plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, redundant…- Case
An author plagiarising the work of the reviewer?
An author submitted part of his PhD thesis as a paper. The section editor of the journal asked the PhD supervisor to review the paper. This induced a very heated response from the reviewer who made various claims regarding the paper: The author does not credit one of the tests he uses in his work There is no proper acknowledgement of co-workers who perhaps should have been co-author… - Case
Uncertain treatment of four patients following previous published experiments
Write to the author,asking if ethical approval had been obtained. This is a bizarre medical practice,which should be flagged to the GMC. In cases of overseas authors, or those who are not medically qualifed, contact the local licensing authority.… - Case
Duplicate publication and now fraud?
Two articles were published in two different journals. The articles had been submitted within days of each other, and were subsequently peer reviewed, revised, and published within a month of each other. The authors failed to reference the closely related article as submitted or in press, and the editors of the two journals were unaware of the other article. After publication the editor… - Case
Duplicate publication
An author published a paper in Journal A that looked extremely similar to one already published as guidelines in Journal B. Of 48 paragraphs of text, 41 were almost identical. It has since transpired that several authors who were involved in the writing of the article published in Journal B have not been acknowledged. Prior publication elsewhere had not been acknowledged in the Journal A paper.… - Case
Author approval for response to mini-reviews
The Forum agreed that is was acceptable for a single author to reply if it was made clear in the published response that this was the case. However, it is normal practice for the corresponding author to reply on behalf of all of the authors. A good corresponding author will contact the other authors with his response and obtain their approval. It was suggested that a box could be provided, to… - Case
Complaint regarding letters to the editor
Our journal routinely sends letters commenting on published articles to the authors of those articles. This gives the authors an opportunity to respond to any criticisms. The letters and the responses are then considered together and we make a decision on which ones to publish. If a letter is not selected for publication, our usual practice is to send the author's response to the person… - Case
Erratum query
…Questions for COPE Council Does Journal B have to take any action based on this notification of the impending erratum e.g. should it publish an ‘erratum’ or ‘notice’ on the Review article that draws the readers' attention to the erratum on the cited Research article in Journal A? Is such an action common or standard practice? … - News
Research Integrity, Sixth Report of Session 2017-19 from the House of Commons
…inappropriate images.” Many other notable individuals provided similar and supporting evidence that the conduct and reporting research is a complex endeavor involving many actors. Of great interest to COPE is the ways in which our editor and publisher members handle allegations of misconduct. COPE’s core practices provide resources for our members to support the highest standards in publication ethics.… - News
New Journal Members October-December 2018
…outlined in the Core Practices. New members ACS Applied Electronic Materials ACS Applied Polymer Materials FORUM DISCUSSION TOPIC: comments please
…Inclusion, inclusivity, or inclusiveness refers to ensuring that all team members feel engaged and their contributions and perspectives are valued. Efforts to actively promote both diversity and inclusion need to be ongoing, given that demographics and team composition continuously change with time. Within the scholarly publishing industry, diversity and inclusion principles and practices apply to…- News
Letter from the COPE Chair: March 2021
…href="https://publicationethics.org/resources/discussion-documents/book-publishing-ethics">Ethical considerations around book publishing”. COPE has convened a task force of publishers dealing with issues related to books. Initially, we have limited our scope to books, which include monographs, both sole authored and co-authored, and anthologies, which have a multiplicity of approaches in terms of publishing practices. COPE is interested in providing advice and guidance on book publishing… - Case
Ethical approval and fabrication of results
A group of authors, based in private practice, submitted three manuscripts to Journal A and one to Journal B. All the manuscripts described the application and effectiveness of a spinal manipulation technique. The first manuscript in Journal A was a case series of 21 patients. After publication, a member of the journal’s editorial board pointed out several flaws in the study design,… - Case
A case of salami slicing
…publication practices and argued that the two other efficacy measures will substantiate the results of P1. The results of the papers were contradictory to current practices and hence the editorial team decided to be lenient with the authors. The editors suggested combining the two manuscripts under review (P2 and P3) into one short communication and asked the authors for appropriate modifications (eg,… - Case
Change of corresponding author after manuscript published online
…with the corresponding author, for purposes of transparency, it is good practice to copy in all co-authors on correspondence related to authorship disputes …..” and “Editors are not in a position to fairly adjudicate disputes, nor should they capitulate to threats and bullying by the authors involved in those disputes”. If the journal decides that the corresponding author can be changed,… - Flowcharts
Systematic manipulation of the publication process
…guidance. Key points Systematic manipulation of the publication process is where an individual or a group of individuals aim to guarantee publication by repeatedly used dishonest or fraudulent practices to: prevent or inappropriately influence the independent assessment of a piece of scholarly work by an independent peer; inappropriately attribute authorship of a piece…