- News
In the news: March Digest
…Research Ethics, a COPE member, recently published an interesting article titled “Should research misconduct be criminalized?” As COPE moves forward with university members following a successful pilot program, the organisation may be well positioned to help address the authors’ conclusions that further clarity is needed in defining research misconduct, handling allegations, and determining… - News
In the news: November 2020
…Publication ethics news November 2020 Each month, COPE Council members find and share publication ethics news.This month the news includes articles on diversity, retractions, open access, and more. Retractions Retracting a paper may not have the desired effect of preventing it's influence on research. In this - News
COPE in 2023
…research and publication ethical standards, but COPE is not such an agency. We strongly welcome the formation of such a body. Without it, maintaining the integrity of the literature remains a joint endeavour that requires trust and collaboration between researchers, journals, publishers, research institutions, funders and governments which may be at cross-purposes. We will continue to collaborate with… - Case
Problem with figures
…look at the higher resolution images, in confidence. He responded with the following: “If the claim is that the three photos of Fig. X represent different samples I would in indeed have a problem with that. Same elements look identical. Difficult to prove though as there are larger parts that differ. Nevertheless, that concerned reader may have a point. I am suspicious, too, that the figures… - Case
Lack of trial registration leads to new concerns about study conduct and ethical review/approval
…that the ethics committee named in the paper as giving approval in fact did not, and that a different ethics committee gave approval. We plan to describe the setting for recruitment of participants and state that the company employees were participants. We would like to state that the trial was not registered and should have been, under our journal's criteria and ICMJE criteria, even though it may… - News
Artificial intelligence: Lightning talk summary
…manipulation, rotation. What do author verification tools look for? It is often difficult to verify author identities because people may use non-institutional email addresses, or submit under different name variations. AIRA uses Frontiers’ own submission data and other external repositories including Google Scholar, Pubpeer and ORCID as part of its checks, which include whether the author has… - Case
Conflicts of interest between authors and editors
…policy. For context, COPE’s Ethical guidelines for peer reviewers (but applicable also to handling editors) states that: Competing interests may be personal, financial, intellectual, professional, political or religious in nature. If you are currently employed at the same… - News
A vision for a more trans-inclusive publishing world: guest article
…contributors. Some of these suggestions may be more or less difficult to implement, but there is critical and practical value in clearly articulating our values and ideals for a more just and inclusive publishing environment. We write these principles with an intent of reducing the epistemic and emotional labor of transgender scholars, and to recommend community-derived best practices for publishers and… - News
Where next in peer review? Part 2: COPE commentary
…proportion of submitted papers based simply on the first few hundred words of the submission. This may not in itself be an issue (many human reviewers can at least guess at authors’ identities, after all), but it becomes more sinister if an AI tool starts to discriminate against certain authors. While human reviewers are also not free from bias, the ‘black box’ nature of most AI models means that such… - News
Authorship and Contributorship focus: an editor view and research institution view
…policy (papers, data, software, etc). Handbooks and manuals that guide affiliated researchers at all levels on managing the rights in their works and those held by the Institute. Appendixes may include sample copyright transfer agreements; guidance on retaining author rights; and applying open licensing Thesis manuals that include guidance on including published or submitted material… - News
Letter from the COPE co-Chairs: April 2019
…/cope-digest-publication-ethics-practice-december-2017-vol-5-issue-12#story-4061">review of everything that’s new from COPE, and in 2018 we looked at how we're responding to change. May 2019 marks the end of our term as Co-Chairs. So, before our incoming COPE Chair Deborah Poff… - Case
Unethical withdrawal of a paper
…that if a retraction of the statement of double submission and journal ban is not made, he may take legal action. Editor A’s position is that double submission occurred because Authors A and B demonstrated their intent to have their paper considered by both journals simultaneously by withdrawing their paper as soon as Editor B expressed an interest in it. If either Author A or Author B asked… History of COPE
…BMJ, The Lancet, British Journal of Anaesthesia, Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Annals of Rheumatic Diseases and Journal of Clinical Pathology, and the first open meeting was held in November 1997. Richard Smith (editor of the BMJ) wrote “[COPE] may not prove useful in the long term, and we will be delighted if it is made…- Case
Request for a retraction of a retraction
… · Pointed out that all patients had given oral informed consent (the paper said “written”, and he admitted this disparity was a mistake). In May 2006, the corresponding author sent a letter for publication in the retracting journal, asking for a retraction of the retraction, on the grounds of a ruling by a series… - Forum discussion topics
Editing of reviewer comments
…the reviewer first, to work with them and see if they can change their review to something more appropriate. If the reviewer is not willing to do so, the editor might explain to them why their review is not appropriate and acceptable practice. If a journal has a policy, it is then easy to reach out to reviewers and explain why their comments are problematic. Reviewers may not always be aware that… - News
Where next in peer review? Part 1: COPE commentary
…we saw some interesting signs that there may be new life in peer review after all. A revolution in peer review? Covid-19 saw a surge in rapid, community-led peer review because of the urgent need to understand more about the virus. Unfortunately, a number of the resulting articles later had to be… - Case
Author of rejected letter blames global bias against his message and undisclosed conflicts of interest
…then went on to contradict himself and, in my view, invalidate his only claim which may have had some merit: “I would like to clarify that [the group] is absolutely not an ‘advocacy/regulatory group’. To take a modern example, it is something like Facebook where authors [...] advertise and publish the kind of publication that I have criticised in details for their flaws. In that case I don’t… - Seminars and webinars
COPE webinar: Enhancing partnerships of institutions and journals
…shared. How can we request universities to share more information about how they came to decisions because journals are often left to deal with the author who did not get credit. Any recommendations? Is there any way organisations such as COPE can ask the major publishers to implement a standard approach around retractions so that self-reported article retractions are clearly visible? This may… Subcommittees and working groups
…advise the Trustee Board on specific areas of COPE's operations. Each subcommittee consists of a Chair, usually at least four other Council members and, ex-officio, the Executive Officer. Additional individuals may be recruited as needed to complete specific tasks. The Trustee Board has delegated authority to the subcommittees to implement their objectives. Its decisions are reported to the…- News
In the news: July Digest
…published research articles may include participants who have undergone organ transplantation sourced from executed prisoners in China. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01890-4 In a compelling report in The Biologist, Doris Schroeder…