- Case
Preprint plagiarism
…Journal B does not know exactly which paper they refer to. Questions for the Forum Is there a case to answer here? Should the editor of journal B advise author group A (who remain anonymous to journal B, and who can only be contacted through one of the editors of journal B) that they should formally report the issue to journal B so that it… - Case
Author anonymity at the final proofreading stages
…reviewers at earlier stages, agree to help with these final checks, and are no longer acting as reviewers, but as copyeditors. Questions for the Forum Does having the author details on the final copies, that may be seen by the reviewers, breach the double blind system? Is it acceptable practice for reviewers to help with final checks (eg, grammar,… - Case
Duplicate submission and request for withdrawal
…waited for the acceptance before withdrawing from journal A. Journal A contacted journal B to explain the duplicate submission, and that the authors requested withdrawal, citing doubts in the validity of their paper’s data. Questions for the COPE Forum Should journal B retract the paper on these grounds? What happens if journal B does not receive… - Case
Suspicious responses to authorship change requests
…definitive proof. Question for the Forum Given the concerns about the validity of author D’s emails, how should the journal and the publisher proceed? … - Case
Data integrity issues
…No further correspondence has been received. Question for the Forum Should the journal retract these articles because the data cannot be verified? … - Case
Possible image manipulation
…has 16 papers on PubPeer with similar allegations of image manipulation. Question for COPE Council Is there anything further we can/should do? … - Case
Request for retraction due to alleged ethical misconduct in a grant application
…does not consider that the issue has any effect on the results of the published manuscript, and it is not at risk of endangering anyone utilising the results, negating the need for urgent retraction by the journal. The journal is also concerned about retracting an article that has multiple authors from multiple international institutions. Questions for the Forum What… - Case
Retracting a 'Just Accepted' article
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. If the article is available in any form, then it should… - Case
Potential image integrity flags on 15-year-old published papers
…is unlikely. Questions for the Forum After how many years is it acceptable to leave a case unresolved because it would be ineffectual to pursue an investigation? Is there a cut-off point? If there is a cut-off point then should the journal respond to the comment/concern, for example, by posting a note on PubPeer to say that due to the age of the paper and… COPE Forum
…the COPE website. The advice from the Forum participants (or from Council) is provided back to the member who brought the case, but the final decision on handling the case lies with the member editor and/or publisher. COPE accepts no liability for any loss or damage caused or occasioned as a result of advice given by them or by any COPE member. Advice given by COPE and its members is not…- Case
Publishing corrections for articles in inactive journals
…from the same publisher. Any changes must therefore be made manually and may not get updated in PubMed Central. Questions for the Forum: Should the corrective measures be published under the original journal title (updating the table of contents for the last issue) or in the new journal which took in the older journal and its published content? Is it acceptable… - Event
COPE Forum: 3 February 2017 4pm (GMT)
…as soon as possible as the webinar is limited to 100 attendees. Deadline to register: Thursday 2 February Register 4pm Forum 4 - 5.30pm GMT The agenda with cases to be discussed will be posted here before the Forum. (Unfortunately we have had to cancel… - Event
COPE Forum: Thursday 14 October 2021
The 14 October 2021 COPE Forum will be held at 14:00-15:30pm BST (UTC + 1). - Case
Requesting authorship after publication
…believed that an acknowledgment was appropriate, but then recommended the addition of Dr H as an author. We maintain that an acknowledgment is appropriate, and that adding him as an author without fulfilling ICMJE criteria (journal policy) would be the equivalent of gift authorship. Question(s) for the COPE Forum• Based on ICMJE criteria and journal policy, does the Forum believe… - Case
Reader concerns about ethics approval and consent from a vulnerable population
…receive its ethics approval in addition to the ethics approval that they had received from the original institution where the research took place. The institution requested that we retract the article and remove the institution’s affiliation from the co-author’s profile in the article. Questions for COPE Council Does COPE Council agree with the journal’s decision not… - Case
Author retracts request to be removed from author list
…possible since the original data are no longer available). Allow the authors to publish a note to be attached to the paper that indicates the paper has minor errors but that these do not alter the findings, and that this has been verified by a disinterested third party (chosen by us, the editors of the journal). Questions for the COPE Forum Which of the above… - Case
Conflicts of interest between authors and editors
…whether this would meet the requirements for databases like PubMed Central. Questions for COPE Council 1. Can the CoI issues in the past published papers, be regarded as a special case both internally and when our papers are reviewed for inclusion in databases? 2. Can the EiC still choose to use an AE who is a co-author on specific types of paper (if this has… - News
Guest editorial: Data availability statements
This is a guest editorial and opinions may not reflect official COPE guidance or policies. The gap between promise and reality Jasmine Jamshidi-Naeini[1], Andrew W. Brown[2],[3], Wasiuddin Najam[1], Colby J. Vorland[1], Stephanie Dickinson[1], David B. Allison[1] [1]Department of Epidemiology and… - Forum discussion topics
Peer review models
…introduction to the COPE Forum discussion on the topic "Peer review models" with COPE Council Member, Patrick Franzen. COPE Forum discussion Peer review sits at the core of scholarly publishing.… - News
Case discussion: Editor manipulation of impact factor
…journal-level citation metrics are widely quoted as an indicator of journal influence, but also widely misused in research evaluation systems. They are known to be prone to manipulation, such that Clarivate Analytics suppresses titles from its Journal…