- Case
Author dispute and dual submission
…expressing concern, but after six weeks none of them had responded. A further letter was sent advising them that if a response was not received within 10 working days then the head of their respective institutions would be informed. This produced a response from two of the authors who accepted that there had been poor communication and admitted that the paper had been sent, presumably simultaneously, to… - Case
Difficulty in obtaining patient consent
An article describing three similar cases was submitted to Journal A. The author was asked to provide evidence of the patients’ consent for their details to be used in the paper. The author replied that all the patients’ personal details in the report had been anonymised and that signed consent would destroy this. Also, two of the three patients had since died and correspondence could be… - News
All Elsevier journals become COPE members
…Editors will benefit from new partnership 13 February 2008 London, UK. The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) is pleased to announce its partnership with Elsevier, publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. More than 2000 journals, the full collection of Health, Sciences and Science… - News
Allegations of Misconduct webinar summary, April 2019
…Allegations of Misconduct COPE Webinar 12 April, 2019 Watch and listen again to the recording of our Allegations of Misconduct webinar: - News
Case discussion: Suspected plagiarism
…discipline. The similarity index needs to be reviewed carefully, and experienced editors will look at all aspects of the article and the sources when deciding if there is significant overlap. Is there a minimum cut-off score below which there is no need to check for plagiarism? One study found… Thank You
Thank you for registering your interest in becoming a member of COPE. Your application will be processed and considered at the next Council meeting. If you have any queries about membership before then, please contact the COPE Administrator here.…- News
February Forum: agenda and discussion topic
…href="/files/u661/COPE%20Forum%20Agenda%20and%20materials%2026_02_18_final_3.pdf">Agenda and materials Register for the Forum … - Seminars and webinars
European Seminar 2017: Translating institutional integrity issues into educational initiatives across Asia-Pacific
…Research @ HKU Common research integrity issues in AsiaPacific countries … - News
Building an international register of ongoing systematic reviews: have your say
…style="margin-top:12.0pt">The register will be free of charge and will work in a similar way to clinical trials registers allowing researchers to prospectively record key features of their systematic reviews. Fuller details about the project have just been… - News
Case discussion: critiques after publication
…reviewer commented that the study’s conclusion did not agree with the study design and results. When asked to clarify, the corresponding author replied that objections about articles should not be allowed beyond three months after their publication, which was this journal’s stated time limit for receiving letters to the editor. The editor felt the article still needed correcting. Question(s)… - News
Case discussion: repeated complaints about a review
…href="https://publicationethics.org/resources/seminars-and-webinars/retractions-taxonomy">Reducing the inadvertent spread of retracted science”, and industry efforts are being made to detect citations of retracted papers. The Cochrane website has guidelines for dealing with - Case
Salami publication
…difficult to decipher which subjects were new and which were already counted in previous studies. The authors appealed against the referee’s comments saying that the data were new, and the method of data collection was entirely different from their previous studies. They argued that there were too many outcomes for all of them to be included in one study. The journal that published one set of… - Case
Duplication of data
…reproduced. The response from the authors was as follows.Regarding the considerable overlap and duplication of data, I'd like to explain this: In both papers the control group is the same. One figure has been reproduced in both papers. The aim of including this figure in each paper is different, being in one case to show the difference against one option and in the other case… - Case
Using industry knowledge to evaluate an ethics case
…publisher A can use these insights, are there any limitations on the ways they could be applied? If, for example, publisher A ultimately shares publisher B's concerns but the editors defend the methodology, could publisher A potentially proceed with a correction or retraction? … - 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… - Case
Paper submitted by a PR company without the knowledge of the authors
A paper was submitted for which there were seven contributors, but no corresponding author. The only identification of who had sent the paper was an accompanying e-mail from a public relations company. When contacted by the editorial office, the PR company confirmed that the paper was to be considered for possible publication. The named contributors were then contacted and asked whether they… - Case
Non-compliance of author with request for information
…wrote them several emails, but unfortunately there was no response. I have decided to write to the editor to help me get the information I need". What should be the responsibility of the editors to try to influence the authors to comply? Note that the Instructions to Authors include a statement that the journal adheres to the COPE guidelines. The Editors have already replied as… - Case
Allegation of fraud and insider trading
A manuscript was submitted to our journal describing a clinical trial funded by a commercial sponsor with almost all authors being either employees or having financial ties to the company. Although generally favourable, during the extensive peer review process several reviewers raised concerns about the data being “too good to be true”. The editors sought additional statistical… - News
COPE survey
The results from the survey of COPE Members, which was carried out online recently, have been collated into a report which can be downloaded here (Download PDF, 645kb).… - Event
STM Spring Conference
The STM Spring Conference 2021 is a virtual event. More Information on the topics to be discussed at the conference are regularly updated on the STM website: More information and register…