New UK Panel for Research Integrity
…UK is out of line with many other countries in continental Europe and the USA, which have had national bodies for some time. At the joint consensus conference at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in October 1999, general agreement was reached on: Developing/promoting models of good practice for local implementation Providing assistance for the…The protection of vulnerable groups and individuals
…href="https://publicationethics.org/cope-position-statements">COPE position statements COPE Core Practice: Ethical oversight Page history First published: 2021…- Case
Submission without knowledge of the corresponding author
A case report was received and the corresponding author was duly notified. The corresponding (and senior author) immediately faxed back, asking who had submitted the case report as he had not been consulted and had not seen the manuscript.The submission letter contained the names of all four authors; three of the signatures had been made using the same pen and probably the same hand.The signatu… - Case
Ethical standards in animal research
The details of the experiment were “particularly gruesome” which meant that the validity of the data as a model for human disease was questionable. The editor intends publishing an editorial comment relating to submissions in general, possibly in the form of a review article on some aspect of good animal practice, with an accompanying editorial.… - News
COPE in 2023: Update
…newsletter Read COPE Digest newsletter May 2023. New guidance has been released on "Best practices for guest-edited collections", and COPE will host a Forum discussion on the topic in July - the Forum is now open to Members to register. … - Case
Comments linked to retracted papers
…a particular paper, and one that is about a wider topic and is more like a mini review. They may accompany a paper or might be standalone and in a different issue. How the commentary relates to the published paper (eg, extent or message, sentiment, purpose) would matter. If the commentary is only about the now retracted paper and is mostly positive about its contribution to the field and its practical… - Case
Possible breach of reviewer confidentiality
…href="http://publicationethics.org/files/Peer%20review%20guidelines.pdf ">Ethical guidelines for peer reviewers" and would recommend them to all editors. They have been very well received and are a very useful resource for editors and reviewers. Editors may like to include them in their instructions for reviewers.… - Case
Professional misconduct of one author
…settled by the authors’ institution(s). The coauthor responded to this email to provide details of the article in question and explained that they no longer wish to be associated with the manuscript or to be a part of that work based on the alleged behaviour of the lead author. Up to now we have approached this issue in line with the policies and guidelines central to best practices in… - News
In the news: June Digest
10/06/19 Peer review Peer review is the hallmark of scientific and scholarly publications. These authors explore 5 principles of good peer review and suggest ways for journals to use these to underpin best practices. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/leap.1222 In… - 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…FORUM DISCUSSION TOPIC: comments please
…questions as to how best ensure author, editor, reviewer and journal interests are protected. Questions Does it violate confidential/blind peer-review to reveal reviewer comments even after publication? What can journals do to make sure reviewer comments remain confidential? How can reviewers ensure they are able to share and get credit for their…- Case
Consideration of publishing raw data
Our journal has received a submission regarding clinical trial results. The authors wish to include the “raw data” as an appendix to the manuscript. The study was completed several years ago and was controversial at the time. The authors wish to publish the raw data to allow the public to view the findings and make their own decisions about the trial. We do not know the best way to handle this… - Forum discussion topics
COPE Forum 9 September 2015: Who “owns” peer review?
…data. Journals, on the other hand, often conduct confidential review processes and wish to restrict the sharing of comments exchanged during peer-review. Emergence of these services therefore prompts a number of concerns and questions as to how best ensure author, editor, reviewer and journal interests are protected. Questions Does it violate confidential/blind… How COPE will respond to a media enquiry
…educate and support editors, publishers, universities, research institutes, and others involved in publication ethics, with the aim of moving the culture of publishing towards one where ethical practices become the norm. Our approach is firmly in the direction of influencing through education, guidance and support of our members alongside the fostering of professional debate in the wider community.- Case
Potentially unethical publication
The committee discussed whether or not this was a retrospective cohort study without informed consent or ethics committee approval. The committee felt that this could also be an example of good clinical practice by the author in that having read about the potential for adverse effects of treatment X in patients with specific risk factors, he/she called back those patients at risk for a check… - Seminars and webinars
Universiti Malaysia Seminar: Authorship
…class="resource-download-inline__shadow"> Focusing on avoiding authorship problems and highlighting relevant COPE resources, the webinar covered various authorship definitions, authorship versus contributorship, investigating and avoiding unethical authorship practices from the perspectives of journals and institutions, and advice on early and… - News
Thank you and goodbye to Council members
…target="_blank">International Journal of Manpower President, International Network of Business & Management Journal Editors (INBAM) Sir Isaac Wolfson Professor Emeritus in Economics & Business Economics Department, Bar-Ilan University Ramat Gan 52900, Israel - Event
COPE Forum: Wednesday 9 June 2021
…DOIs be assigned to the same manuscript? 21-07 Manuscript submitted based on retracted paper 4. Updates to cases previously brought to the COPE Forum 20-02 Paper published without permission or acknowledgement from institution 21-01 Preprint plagiarism 21-02 Author anonymity at the final proofreading stages - Case
Blatant example of duplicate publication?
A paper was submitted to one journal on 7 March, revised on 20 May, submitted to another journal on 21 March, revised on 29 May, accepted on 2 July and published in December 1997. The content of both papers is identical but each has different reference styles so were clearly intended for two different journals. The submission letter to the first journal clearly states that the material has not…