- Case
Seven plagiarized manuscripts in one month by the same corresponding author
…to consider the merits of each manuscript individually; rejecting all is not justified. COPE does not recommend banning authors for ethical infractions, so if the author is not banned, it seems logical that each submission must be evaluated carefully. The editor is probably correct in suspecting the worst, given the history of this author, but that should just prompt a careful review, perhaps… - News
COPE position statement on inappropriate manipulation of peer review processes
…will be contacting the authors of papers for which those reviewers were suggested as well as the relevant institutions, even if the papers were not accepted. Authors with any concerns about inappropriate agency involvement in suggesting peer reviewers or any other aspect of the manuscript preparation and submission process should contact the relevant journal. COPE is working… - News
Understanding your needs: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
…resources in the arts, humanities and social sciences, including resources specifically for ethical issues which are found only in these areas. An initial view of the results from the survey will be presented at the COPE North American Seminar in Philadelphia in May. If you are, or have recently been, a journal… - Case
Duplicate submission of a paper
…would not happen. Does COPE have any views on how this sort of situation should be prevented and what action should be taken when it does arise? The journal’s advice to authors is clear about the importance of advising if there are previous related papers that have been published or submitted.… - Case
Authorship dispute
…acknowledgement. The editors asked if author A had sought agreement from author B concerning this change, and added that it was not journal policy to make these changes. The reply from author A included a long and detailed account of what was clearly a personal dispute that had developed between these two authors subsequent to submission of the manuscripts. The editors, however, decided to reinstate author… - Case
Dual submission
_ Around one in five published papers are republished in substantial form. _ A study in the 80s found that over 10 per cent did not mention previous publication, but a second study at the end of the 90s suggested this figure was around 1%. _ It takes considerable time and effort to look at all the referenced papers to see if there is any overlap and then those are the published ones, not those… - Case
Dual publication
…not been plagiarised. _ The letter authors knew that their comments had been passed on by journal B. _ The editor felt that the authors of the letter would want their concerns published. _ The authors should be asked to respond to the issues raised by the letter authors about duplicate publication and then the editors should publish a notice of retraction. _ If the article in journal B was—as the… - Case
Attempts to draw attention to potential duplicate publication
…a response only from Journal A, stating that the only concern was a possible copyright infringement if the author had not obtained permission to reprint the tables in Journal B, but that policing copyright was not the journal’s business. The letter continued: “The author did not violate [Journal A] policy in that we were first to publish. We have notified the editor of [Journal B] that they may want to… - Case
Competing interests question
…work or write the paper, as you can see I am not a co-author. If you look at the paper, it indicates the financial support of a NIMH grant. I am the director of the overall project that included a component directed by the first author that conducted this study. Would you have taken a different course of action? In particular, do you think it was right to publish the evaluation and is the… - Case
Accusation of non-attribution of authorship
…the author of the article and the author of the overview article. Various people agreed to write the accompanying overviews." In April 2010, following the complaint, the editor wrote to apologise if there had been a misunderstanding, but also pointed out that the journal had acted in good faith, given the explanation above. We heard nothing further until 2 years later when the… - Case
Plagiarism of a PhD thesis
The Forum were unanimous in their assertion that the PhD thesis should be cited. Even if the PhD thesis is unpublished, it should still be cited. It counts as a type of publication. The intellectual property belongs to the authors, so their rights may have been violated. However, the editor raised another issue. The Forum were told by the editor that one of the authors of the paper is… - Forum discussion topics
COPE Forum 4 December 2013: persistent complainers
…How should a journal deal with persistent complainers? The topic for discussion at this Forum was ‘How should a journal deal with persistent complainers?’ Background Every so often a journal may get not one, but a series of complaints from the same source. These complaints may be directed at an author, an editor, or the journal in general. If these… - Discussion documents
How should editors respond to plagiarism? April 2011
…plagiarism? If so, is the distinction between major and minor plagiarism useful or do we need more categories? What types of plagiarism should prompt journals to inform authors’ institutions? What other sanctions should journals impose on authors for plagiarism? How should journals handle cases of the various forms of plagiarism in submitted and published work? … - Seminars and webinars
Webinar 2019: Allegations of misconduct
…Allegations of Misconduct and the role of editors, journals and publishers. Tara introduced COPE's Core Practice Allegations of Misconduct and the responsibility to ensure that you have taken adequate steps before making a decision to ensure it is reasonable and to reduce the possibility that the decision is biased, arbitrary or fundamentally unfair. If you're looking at your processes it would be useful to… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair and Vice-Chair
…Publication Integrity Week We are pleased to announce that registration is now open for COPE’s 2023 "Publication Integrity Week”. This is our opportunity to host a range of virtual discussions and presentations from inspiring speakers for COPE members. If you haven’t registered, we encourage you to take a look at the seminar programme and sign up for sessions that take your interest.… - Flowcharts
Inappropriate image manipulation in a published article
…the conclusions in the article. If it is obvious that parts of an image have been selectively edited, affecting conclusions, there is an option for immediate retraction of the article. It is recommended that an expression of concern is published while an institutional investigation is ongoing. When an honest error has been detected, publishing a correction or retraction… - Case
Randomisation and ethics of pilot trials
We received a paper with potentially important results. After review and revision, we accepted the paper. On further reflection, and asking more of the authors, we became concerned. It is an RCT and the only protocol available was slim but appeared authentic. There were two protocols: one for a pilot trial and, if that was positive, a second protocol aimed to randomise more people. One… - Case
Disagreement between authors and sponsor
…consulted, and they felt that if the journal editors were satisfied with the authors' responses and the relevant changes to the manuscript, then they did not see any reason not to publish the paper. They also advised that our society's board of directors should review the situation and recommended that the case be submitted to COPE, a recommendation endorsed by the society's board. The company… - Seminars and webinars
Post-publication critiques
…Good research should produce data in a form which is ready to share and sites such as OSF and Zenodo provide this without charge. Some journals have moved towards mandating data sharing for certain article types (if possible under confidentiality agreements); at the BMJ all authors must submit a declaration stating whether… - News
Case discussion: Low-risk study with no ethics committee approval
…approval or formal exemption (or, if applicable, to waive consent or consent documentation). As suggested by Forum, consent procedures should also be fully explained in the manuscript. Although retrospective ethical review is reserved for special emergency cases, the post-study approval that was granted in this case confirms the low risk involved. Nevertheless, editors need to evaluate each case…