- Case
The unacceptable use of a placebo
…receive the medication or an inert placebo. The randomisation was inadequate (“patients were consecutively enrolled in two groups”). The paper gave no details of ethical approval or informed consent. As patients had to stop taking NSAIDs, which were controlling their pain and other symptoms, is it ethical that half received an inert placebo?… COPE policies
…Guidance for Trustees, Council members, employed, freelance and contracted staff, COPE members, and everyone who accesses COPE resources The following are intended to provide a clear and coherent set of policies and procedures to ensure that: our organisation is well run; and all who work for, volunteer for, or access COPE resources…- News
COPE's first discussion document on plagiarism published
When aspects of publication ethics are particularly fast-moving or controversial COPE cannot always provide detailed guidance. Consequently, in a new venture for COPE, we are intending to publish a series of discussion documents with the aim to stimulate discussion rather than tell editors what to do. We hope that, by raising the issues, we can contribute to the debate within the academic… - Case
Institution refuses to investigate scientific issues
…question were duplicated or improperly altered. The contact person also stated that it was not the institution's place to comment on whether the data in the publication were sound and trustworthy. The publisher pointed out that the software was not used to detect problems with the paper—it was simply a tool to provide a visual demonstration of the similarities between the blots. The publisher… - News
Case discussion: repeated complaints about a review
…publish a correction with a note alerting readers of the retracted references, or, because of scarce resources and possible further retractions of references, issue only a note? Forum advice and follow up The Forum agreed that readers should be informed of the retracted references, and advised publishing an expression of concern rather than a correction. Readers could then judge… - Case
Request to remove author from submitted manuscript due to academic misconduct
Regarding a submitted (but not yet accepted) paper from a scientific collaboration, one of the authors has asked whether an instance of academic misconduct or - for that matter - any non-scientific but rather unsavoury personal facts or accusations (e.g. a penal or civil proceedings) can be considered as a valid ground for requesting that the journal remove an author from the paper, as per the… - News
Appointment of COPE Ombudsman
COPE is seeking applications for the position of COPE Ombudsman.This is a voluntary position but COPE will cover travel expenses. The Ombudsman adjudicates: complaints brought against COPE by its members; appeals against COPE rulings or advice relating to complaints against COPE members for not following the COPE codes of conduct for editors and publishers;… - News
WCRI 2019: Responsible authorship panel
…to manage. The five most common problems include: claims of stolen data, methods, or intellectual content (31%); incomplete, inconclusive, or suspicious institutional investigations (18%); undeclared conflicts of interest (18%); misconduct in conducting, analysing, or reporting findings (19%); and duplicate publication or salami slicing (14%). Specific author behaviours leading to disputes… - News
Ethical Editing – Autumn 2012 issue
Download the Autumn issue of Ethical Editing, the newsletter from COPE. This issue's theme is ''Connections''. We would very much welcome any feedback or comments you may have. Please contact us via the website.… - Event
Ask COPE 14 October 2015
The next Ask COPE will be held on Wednesday 14 October at 3pm (British Summer Time). Please contact Linda Gough to register or to obtain further details (http://publicationethics.org/contact-us)… - News
Allegations of Misconduct webinar summary, April 2019
…Summary Nancy Chescheir, COPE Council and Editor in Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology, introduced and moderated the webinar. Nancy reminded everyone of COPE's Core Practice Allegations of Misconduct, and what it means in its broadest sense: "Any practice that may affect the research record in terms of findings, conclusions or attribution". - News
Publication ethics: fraud and misconduct
…publication ethics, including editorial staff and journal editors. It will be especially relevant to those developing or revising their company’s, society’s or journal’s editorial policies or processes. Full details can be found on the ALPSP website. ALPSP are pleased to offer this course to all COPE members at the… - Forum discussion topics
Editing of reviewer comments
…non-conflicted, thoughtful, unbiased, thorough reviews of the work in question and to not be subjected to hostile or personal attacks. This topic was discussed by participants of the COPE Forum, March 2020. Editing of peer reviews After the Forum discussion we shared an online questionnaire with members and non-members to gain more feedback on this topic. Expenses policy
…expenses are to be met by COPE, they will be paid under the guidelines below. Attending external meetings and conferences If the submitter is invited to attend a conference or meeting on behalf of COPE (in particular, to give a presentation) the organisers of the meeting are expected to pay all expenses related to travel, accommodation, and any…- Case
Dealing with cases with culturally offensive content
…potential harm the science detailed in the papers have. A few suggestions have been generated on how to address the practice outlined in the papers: Developing a new editorial concern statement/disclaimer to be published with the paper. Having the authors (or editors) write an editorial on their paper Retract the papers (the publisher does not recommend this… COPE Privacy notice
COPE is committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring that any personal data you provide to us is safe, and complies with UK data protection legislation. Personal data is any information about you by which you can be identified or be identifiable. It includes information such as your name, email address, and location. This privacy notice describes what personal data COPE collects,…- Flowcharts
Responding to whistleblowers when concerns are raised via social media
COPE's guidelines, as a flowchart, on how to respond to whistleblowers when concerns are raised about a published article on a social media site. How should you respond when a published article is criticised on social media or a post-publication peer review site(s)? The criticism could include anonymous or not anonymous concerns about scientific soundness or allegations of plagiarism,… - Case
Author requesting removal of verbatim text from published paper
…work are that although the name of author A lies buried in the sections where phrases, sentences, and whole paragraphs have been lifted from their work, the actual passages lifted are not marked as quotations (by quotation marks, indentation or in any other way); the impression therefore is that the lifted passages are at best, author B own words, or at worse, author B is paraphrasing the words of… - Guidelines
Cooperation between research institutions and journals on research integrity and publication misconduct cases
…Institutions should investigate allegations of research misconduct, and journals should correct or retract findings that are invalid or unreliable (whether the errors are because of misconduct or honest errors) to prevent readers from being misled. Research reports that are incorrect or misleading may require post-publication amendment, even when allegations of misconduct by the researchers are not upheld… Authorship and AI tools
…COPE position statement The use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT or Large Language Models in research publications is expanding rapidly. COPE joins organisations, such as WAME and the JAMA Network among others, to state that AI tools cannot be…