- News
In the news: May 2018 Digest
…-research?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other">https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/apr/10/africas-unsung-scientists-finally-get-their-own-journal-to-spread-research?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other A major new body opened in the UK, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) 1 April. It combines all the research councils which support UK science, along with Innovate UK, a government-funded organization… - Case
Unethical withdrawal of a paper
…Author A’s or B’s or any other emails for a long period of time. (The Editorial Assistant was replaced for performance reasons shortly afterwards.) Editor A received a telephone call from Author A, since Author A did not receive a reply. Editor A responded by email to Author A’s voice message advising that the decision taken was not open to discussion. Author A contacted the publisher stating… - Seminars and webinars
Seminar 2021: Authorship for sale
…Recommendations for handling image integrity issues STM AI Ethics in Scholarly Communication … - Forum discussion topics
Author behavioural misconduct
…to individuals’ reputation or safety as a consequence, and it is likely the publisher/editor would only have access to very limited information about the facts of the situation. There are many commenting platforms and web annotation tools available – these may be better options for complainants or authors who wish to share such information. Some questions will be better directed to… - News
In the news: October-November 2021
…anonomyous survey of > 10,000 researchers at 200 leading universities in the US. Furthering this work, researchers who listed false investigators attracted 70% more funding than those who did not. There are some who consider this a form a research misconduct, perhaps similar to guest authorship. Open science Provocative description of the - Case
Concerns over research by an author in numerous, separate publications
…editor was not successful in obtaining personal identification from the anonymous email authors. The editor goes on to say that “At this point, our views are split. My view is that there was enough of a basis and concern given the subject of anxiety by the authors of the email about being victimised as whistleblowers. I thought that an open ended question to the author of the series in publication that… - News
In the news: April 2018 Digest
…science With additional funding from Elsevier, Harvard scientists are developing a machine-learning program to detect misused images. The program is open sourced and will be available for others to contribute. The motive for image misuse is likely related to image or data mismanagement, rather than the rare case of fraud Common ethical and editorial dilemmas of author misconduct: how should we respond?
…publication/submission is often revealed by reviewers, who happen to have seen it elsewhere or reviewed it for another journal. Can it be incidental? It's very rare. When it is uncovered by the reviewer or the editor, and only then does the author respond, that is suspicious in and of itself. It should be the author openly declaring it if there has been a genuine mistake. What…- News
New COPE members Jan-March 2019
…href="http://publicationethics.org/members/biotechnology-research-and-innovation">Biotechnology Research and Innovation (Elsevier) BITECA BJR|Open (British Institute of Radiology) Brain Science Advances (SAGE Publishing) - Forum discussion topics
Systematic manipulation of the publishing process via “paper mills”
… What can publishers do to improve the screening processes to detect these problems earlier? Are there key author declarations that could be suggested that researchers make? Even for journals which do not have a mandatory data sharing policy, should authors be asked to store their original data/images in open or institutional repositories so that data are at… Common editorial dilemmas: hypothetical cases
…papers fast tracked? Should that be an index of suspicion? There have to be strong arguments in the public interest, and often when that is requested, the issue fades away. What about reviews and discussions of public data? Could these be expert witnesses attempting to have their interpretation of the data published in peer reviewed journals? If it's peer…- News
In the news: June 2018 Digest
…work—a petabyte of data (1015) pieces of data—even if publically accessable—will not be useable by many study groups.Repeating samples including tree ring data, or deep ice cores from the polar areas is very expensive. https://psmag.com/environment/what… - Forum discussion topics
Dealing with complaints about the integrity of published research
…open a publication ethics case for the publication ethics team to look into (or link the tweet to an existing case if applicable). In some cases, the publication ethics team might contact the individual who raised the concerns on social media to discuss the matter in more detail first. How do you decide when it would be appropriate to add a link to PubPeer or Twitter in a journal notice? If…