- News
In the news: December 2021
…="https://www.science.org/content/article/why-scientific-journal-authorship-makes-absolutely-no-sense-et-al">Why scientific journal authorship practices make no sense et all.” describes some of the issues with current authorship practices. Addressing some of these issues, the authors of this article describe authorship guidelines developed for an interdisciplinary centre which take a new approach to preparing author lists, aiming to minimise the… - Case
Lead author of a research paper disagrees with content of a linked editorial
…negotiation, a compromise was reached which allowed posting of a longer than usual letter the morning after the editorial went online. Questions for the COPE Forum • Does the Forum think it is good practice to share the content of linked editorials with the authors of the relevant paper? Should the journal change its long-standing policy not to share?• What is the Forum’s view on… - Case
An enquiry about arbitrating reviewers
…the editor is introducing bias, even by showing a third reviewer the previous reviews. All agreed that the editor needs to make the decision on what he thinks is best for his journal. The journal could, perhaps, audit the process and see if there is any evidence of bias (i.e. whether papers that undergo review by a third reviewer are more or less likely to be accepted than those that are reviewed by… - Case
Withdrawing from authorship
The Forum agreed that the best course of action is to postpone any decision until after the investigation. In the meantime, the journal could consider publishing an expression of concern stating that an investigation on the paper is being conducted but avoiding stating that there is an authorship dispute. The journal should await the outcome of the investigation before making any changes to… - Case
Deceased author
…potential COIs, which seems to be difficult to ascertain with certainty. For the purposes of transparency, it would be useful for the editor to add a statement or footnote on the paper, including the date of death in relation to participation in authorship and a statement to the effect that to the best of their ability, the journal has determined there was no COI. It is questionable that the… - Case
Paper published without permission or acknowledgement from institution
…saying that he contacted his former institution and agreed to publish the erratum as had been worded by the institution. The erratum has now been published. The journal considers this resolution the best outcome possible.… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: November 2021
…have accomplished over the past year and realign their focus on our priorities for 2022. As we approach 2022, membership for universities and research institutes remains a key priority and we hope to make great strides over the first half of the new year. Other priorities include a more focused look at ethical practices for book and proceeding publications, responding to concerns around paper mills,… - Case
Is ethics committee approval necessary for retrospective clinical studies?
…mechanisms that are in accordance with par 6 can be established.’ According to this declaration, some national regulatory frameworks, and the journal’s previous practice, ethics committee approval would be required for any research conducted involving human beings, even when databases are used. Questions for COPE Council What are other medical journals' policies… - Case
Ukrainian authors request retraction of article published in Russian conference proceedings
…pose additional threats to any of the authors. There are other, practical, issues which editors will need to discuss. Ideally, journals should have policies in place for dealing with situations like this so that they have protocols to draw on. Editors will need to think about the wording of any removal notice as the metadata (including the author list) will usually be left intact. It may be… - News
Case discussion: repeated complaints about a review
…closed. Case discussion This archived COPE Forum case deals with a repeated complaint urging retraction of a review that referred to retracted research. It is categorised under three COPE Core Practices: Post-publication Discussions and Corrections: “Journals must allow debate post publication either on their site,… Facilitation and Integrity FAQ
…subcommittee handles a wide range of publication ethics concerns brought to the attention of COPE. Concerns may be related to any of the areas covered under the COPE Core Practices, resembling the variety of topics covered in case…- Case
Claim of plagiarism in published article
…practice). Author A sent me the articles for comparison and stated that she thought this was plagiarism and that, furthermore, her student had no experience caring for these patients so she had misrepresented herself as an authority on this topic. The student (author B) was the first author, the second author was a physician who was well published on this topic, and "writing assistance" had been… - Seminars and webinars
Seminar 2021: Introduction to publication ethics
…class="resource-download-inline__shadow"> Introduction The session opens with an introduction from Michael of the core features of COPE. He highlights the Committees’ global range of trustees and Council members, summarises the 16 principles of transparency which form the COPE Core Practices, and gives an overview of the development and… - Forum discussion topics
Peer review models
…diversity within the reviewer pool. The more data we have on the characteristics of unethical review practice, the more likely it is that publishers and editors can spot problematic reports. Artificial intelligence may have a valuable part to play here, as with other parts of the process. Tools which validate reviewer credentials are useful, such as ORCID, Publons and Dimensions.… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: July 2020
…href="https://www.stm-assoc.org/standards-technology/peer-review-taxonomy-project/">standard taxonomy for peer review. Wishing you all the best. COPE Chair Deborah Poff, CM, PhD … - Case
Authorship dispute over image
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. The best approach, if possible, would simply be not to… - Seminars and webinars
European Seminar 2019: Exploring Publication Ethics Issues in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
We set out to ask: •Are AHSS editors aware of COPE and how can we best communicate our services to them? •What issues are they dealing with that are problematic and what do they need in terms of support? •What is COPE not currently providing? Respondents were asked to report issues that were most widespread and frequent: 1) Addressing… - News
Case discussion: Authors’ contributions and involvement by medical communications company
…mainly deals with COPE’s Core Practice of Authorship and Contributorship, which states: “Clear policies (that allow for transparency around who contributed to the work and in what capacity) should be in place for requirements for authorship and contributorship as well as processes for managing potential disputes”. Also relevant is COPE’s… - Forum discussion topics
Ethical aspects of conference proceedings
…participants and presented in a variety of forms such as books, journals, special issues or standalone publications. Conference proceedings are usually intended to: allow a community of researchers to engage with current research prior to publication or dissemination in another form. Like journal articles, they typically include findings, experiments, theory, best practices, or new… - News
In the news: April Digest
…Integrity Principles with 9 best practices to achieve them. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11948-019-00094-3 Bias A Holmes and S Hardy continue their deep dive to describe the effect of gender, assessed in about 80% of the time for both reviewers and authors using Genderize.io on naming order in…