- Case
Suspected fabrication of data
A reviewer expressed suspicion that data were manufactured. We wrote to the authors saying that our reviewer would like to see the original data. The author replied that this research was carried out in the USA. We then wrote back suggesting that his co-workers in the US would probably be delighted that this work was being submitted for publication and would happily send over the data but that… - Case
Should we have had author consent for a randomised controlled trial of a peer review?
…Conclusion A notice should be added to the Instructions to Authors, to the effect that from time to time their papers may be used in trials of peer review and that this may slightly delay the processing time. In addition, the letter acknowledging receipt of the article might also contain notice (but with a light touch). In both cases, the authors can be given the opportunity to opt out.… - News
Creating and implementing research data policies: COPE webinar report
…consistently implemented. Quick polls that were held during the webinar revealed that most of the audience had experience of journal data policies as a publisher or editor (85%). Only 9% had not had any experience of journal data policies. Of those who had, most had encountered policies that encouraged data sharing (80%) or required a data availability statement (80%). Fewer had encountered mandatory… Revised principles of transparency and best practice released
…including more specifics on describing peer review practices, publication ethics policies, and author fees. As with previous versions, it emphasises practices achievable by journals regardless of resources. This version has been thoroughly reorganised for easier use," commented Margaret Winker, MD, WAME Trustee. About COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, WAME The- Case
Retrospective ethical approval?
…ethics committee who would consider giving this retrospectively. A subsequent email from the chairman of the ethics committee to the journal expressed doubt about the value of retrospective approval, pointing out that when a study was reviewed prospectively it was possible to suggest changes to the protocol, which obviously could not be done when it was viewed retrospectively. The chairman added that… Publication and research ethics related to geopolitical issues
…="https://www.stm-publishing.com/research-square-companys-position-on-the-crisis-in-ukraine/">Research Square Company's position on the crisis in Ukraine, 15 March 2022 Clarivate: Clarivate to cease all commercial activity in Russia, 12 March 2022 A BMJ editorial notes that it will continue to consider…- News
In the news: April 2020
…December 2019, the Preprints I/O Workshop explored ways to expand and leverage the preprint platform. https://medium.com/@cziscience/strengthening-the-open-science-ecosystem-through-preprints-9e87969631ba This is a report from a survey of 44 platforms that host… - Case
Attempt at dual publication
…comparison found the manuscripts to be approximately 90% the same, with entire sections duplicated. Differences comprised slightly poorer language usage in the recent submission, some single sentence updates, one extra paragraph in one section and some changes to the conclusions. Some sections from the published review had been deleted to fit our shorter word limits. No reference to the earlier publication… - Event
ALPSP Workshop, Publication Ethics: Fraud and misconduct
This is a practical course to help you understand your legal and ethical obligations and implement a successful diversity and inclusion strategy in your workplace. Diversity and inclusion have never been higher on the news and social agenda than at present, and this course will… - Seminars and webinars
COPE webinar 2018: Creating and implementing data research policies
…href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected], which will answer queries within two business days. So far, 1091 journals have adopted data policies, mainly types 1, 2, and 3. Varsha Khodiyar (Data Curation Manager, Open Research Group, Springer Nature) described how the journal Scientific Data implemented its type 4 research data policy. This required adding advice on… - Case
Competing interests question
…declaration of interests sufficient in its current form? Seeing that approximately 1% of evaluators declare any competing interests when probably 90% (again, a rough guess) have interests with regards to the articles they evaluate, would you have any suggestions on how we could improve the situation?… - News
Letter from the COPE co-Chairs: July 2018
…href="https://publicationethics.org/about/council/chris-graf">Chris Graf and Geri Pearson - Event
Pakistan Association of Medical Editors (PAME) Conference
COPE Council member, Behrooz Astaneh, with present a talk about COPE, as well as moderate a workshop on publication ethics, at the Pakistan Association of Medical Editors (PAME) Conference in Lahore, 26-27 April. The programme can be found here. … - Case
Habitual plagiarist
Author F published a single case report (CR1) in my journal. A few months later, I received a letter from author G who claimed that the case published by author F was a verbatim copy of his case report published in another journal H. On comparison of the documents it was obvious that CR1 was an exact reproduction of the article of author G. More than 90% of the sentences overlapped in both… - News
Case discussion: Editing peer review comments
…href="https://publicationethics.org/events/cope-forum-friday-6-march-2020">COPE Forum on 6 March. With this in mind, we highlight two cases from the COPE archive: Case 97-08 likely predated the online editorial management systems that allow confidential comments for the editor to be separated from their comments for the author. The submitter of the case… - News
Letter from the COPE co-Chairs: May 2018
…Unported license, used here with attribution to Ananian) COPE co-chairs Chris Graf and Geri Pearson - Case
Informed consent
A group of researchers are conducting a study of whether women aged 65 to 69 years will accept screening for breast cancer. They plan to invite these women for screening in the same way as they invite younger women for screening but will not know that they are part of a research study. The authors want advice on whether journals would be willing to publish their results, despite the fact that t… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: June 2019
…scholarly integrity. We hope you all enjoy the summer whether on vacation or using the extra time to work on scholarship. COPE Chair Deborah… - 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
Supervisor publishes PhD students work
The PhD supervisor and a co-supervisor published a paper. The paper contained the work of a PhD student; approximately 90% of the paper was from the thesis. The PhD student found out when the paper was electronically pre-published. He contacted the supervisor. The supervisor’s first reaction was “How did you find out”? The supervisor did not want to include the PhD student as an author since…