- News
Case discussion: Suspected plagiarism
…could explain what is expected of authors in terms of attribution of text, and best practice in this area. However, the editor may not be in a position to know the intent of the authors and this would be better addressed by the institution. Another core practice that applies here is Complaints and Appeals: Journals should have a clearly described… - News
In the news: August
…compared. In the UK, the best practice is considered to be through panel evaluation and peer review, as the Research Excellence Framework developers did not feel that it is possible to assess research quality using quantitative indicators alone. Other countries instead used indicators of external funding, productivity and citation impact within Web Of Science as quantitative indicators. Reasons for this… - News
Case Discussion: Ethics of non-active management of a control group
…identification of the individuals would have been a relevant concern. As noted in “Journals’ Best Practices for ensuring consent for publishing medical case reports: guidance from COPE”, “publication consent forms should be required for any case report in which an individual or group of individuals can be identified. This requirement also includes when a report involves deceased persons.” ( - News
Post-publication conflicts of interest
…complete suite of English language COPE flowcharts was recently revised to follow a consistent logic, design, and layout. The content of the flowcharts, and of other guidance documents, will be gradually updated to reflect evolving best practices and industry standards. The first flowchart to have been updated, now… - Case
Conflicts of interest between authors and editors
…will be disclosed at publication. Following these steps will ensure transparency and best practice in the handling of conflicts of interest. However, it should be noted that if a handling editor previously co-authored with an author, (whether or not the editor at that time was an editor), there is still a conflict of interest in the new submission because the editor is a co-author. The editor… List of delegates
…Baldwin International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice Aubrey Blumsohn Northern General Hospital, Sheffield Jane Borthwick Lancet Janet Boullin Oxford University Press Julie Brice Medical Education Margaret Corbett British Journal of…- Guidelines
How to handle authorship disputes: a guide for new researchers
Guidance for new researchers on good authorship practice, and advice on how to deal with authorship issues as they arise. How to handle authorship disputes: a guide for new researchers - Case
Ethical approval requirements for case study reports
…should pay equal attention even if it is decided that informed consent for research does not apply to case reports or case series. COPE has guidelines regarding patient consent in case reports. It should be noted that these stipulate that journals… - Event
COPE 25th anniversary seminar, 2022
…Press’s Research Integrity and Publication Ethics team, and supports Cambridge’s books, journals, higher education programme, and preprint platform in publication ethics best practice. She is also part of Cambridge’s Scholarly Communications Research & Development team and supports a broad range of activities in open research, impact, capacity development, and other research services. Jennifer was… - Case
Conflicts of interest, corrections, and student research
…longer at the time that the correction was published. The correction also acknowledged the roles of the senior academics, including that one had conceived the topic and title of the essay. It did not however mention that both of the senior academics had a financial interest in the topic in question. The reader’s letter criticising this practice was not published. The paper remains online… - Forum discussion topics
Artificial intelligence (AI) and fake papers
…topic. Back to top Questions for discussion 1) Is it an acceptable, and ethical, practice for an author to use AI to write a scholarly article? 2) Can we detect whether an article has been written by AI? Is it important to do so? If so, why? 3) Can an article written by an AI trained on existing articles be considered original? 4) What… - Case
Simultaneous submission without aiming at duplicate publication
The Forum noted the policy of dual submission has not been honoured but there is little than journal A can do. In this case, it seems that the dual submission was not deliberate bad practice on the part of the authors. The authors made the mistake of not withdrawing their article from journal A before submitting it to journal B. The authors may have wrongly thought that journal A knew… - News
What to do if you suspect systematic manipulation of the publication process
Manipulation of the publication process is a relatively new form of misconduct… - Case
The critical commentary
…their commentary. We showed the commentary to the authors of the review (as is our practice) and they said that they had excluded the duplicate version of the study, not because of inadequate randomisation, but because it was a duplicate. The authors of the review have thus changed their text. The authors of the commentary find this explanation hard to believe and want to include a sentence in their… - Case
Questions of authorship, duplicate publication and copyright
In 1995 a group of nine authors published a paper in a leading general medical journal. Copyright was granted by all authors to the journal. In 1998 the senior author received a complimentary copy of a recently published book. One of the chapters was essentially a reprint of the original paper. It was attributed to the sixth, first and second authors. Neither the first nor second author (the gu… - Case
Authorship without the author’s knowledge
A paper was rejected on the reviewer’s recommendation. The editor met one of the senior authors at a conference and out of politeness apologised for rejecting his paper. He was surprised to learn that the senior author had no knowledge of this paper and that the corresponding author had written papers using the senior author’s name without his knowledge in the past. This prompted the editor to… - Case
Redundant publication and a question of authorship
A paper was reviewed and subsequently published in December 1999. A further publication with an almost identical title, but with different authors, was published in another journal in 2000. It is quite clear both papers relate to the same study, and apart from some minor differences in style, which were probably requested by the editorial offices, they seem to be identical. The editor of the se… - Flowcharts
Ghost, guest, or gift authorship in a submitted manuscript
COPE guidance as a flowchart on what to do if you suspect ghost, guest, or gift authorship in a submitted manuscript. Ghost, guest, or gift authorship in a submitted manuscript - Flowcharts
Changes in authorship: Addition of extra author – before publication
COPE's guidance, as a flowchart, on the addition of an extra author before publication. Changes in authorship: Addition of extra author - before publication - Translated resources
¿Qué constituye una autoría?
…COPE ¿Qué constituye una autoría? El presente documento apunta a estimular intercambio en relación a los temas más comunes de la autoría enfrentados por miembros de COPE. Trata de las guías existentes en asuntos de autoría, compila algunos principios básicos para ayudar a prevenir problemas comunes y presenta algunos de los temas más complicados que han surgido en intercambios anterior…