- Case
Conflicting authorship in a collaboration
…were they based on solid scientific grounds. One of the main claims of Researcher Y is that they have a “veto right” and can prohibit publications by the XX collaboration, including 25 scientists from five universities and three countries. Author X stated that the claim of a “veto right” could quite possibly be a violation of federal laws and regulations. Journal A believes that… - Case
Is there a time limit for submitting a critique of a published article?
…the original publication. Another journal had a paper retracted 25 years after publication when it became apparent that full informed patient consent was not obtained by the author. This case does not appear to be about comments submitted that will be published alongside a reply from the authors, as indicated in the journal policy, but rather a publication ethics case where there might be… - News
In the news: November 2018 Digest
…Post publication discussion and corrections On October 25th, Retraction Watch released a database of 18,000 articles and conference papers which had been retracted since the 1970s. - News
Diversity in Peer Review: Survey Results
…nominating/selecting members for its peer reviewer pool (25%) …has diversity policies for selecting peer reviewers when evaluating individual manuscripts/applications (26%) …provides in-house training to promote diversity and inclusion in peer review (13%) …provides training to potential peer reviewers, to promote diversity in its peer review pool (14%) • Additional… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: October 2019
…shared his 25 year experience as a journalist working on publication ethics violations which was an excellent perspective for those of us dealing with publication ethics from a very different purview. The afternoon was filled with engaged and interactive discussions of cases. The rest of the week was spent in COPE meetings which started off with a very important strategic planning day for… - News
Letter from the COPE co-Chairs: May 2018
…Starting the conversation: Outcomes from a research integrity workshop for research institutions, editors and publishers On April 25th members of the Russell Group Integrity Forum met with… - Case
The judgement of Solomon: a case of two strikingly similar papers
In February 2007, author A and a colleague submitted a paper (paper A) to our journal, which uses double-blinded peer review. We sent paper A for external review. Four weeks later, group B submitted a paper (paper B). The editorial office sent paper B to external reviewers, one of whom was author A. Both groups of authors are known to us and well regarded within our discipline. The revie… - Case
Breach of peer review confidentiality
This case concerns a submitted review article that proposes a new theory in a field of research where there are two polarised positions. The original manuscript (R0) underwent peer review and was returned with reports indicating a major revision, which took several months. On submission of the revision, one of the reviewers from the previous round was asked to re-review. That reviewer (r… - News
In the news: November Digest
…researchers look at the link between data sharing and citation, and suggest that articles which share data have a 25% higher citation count. https://thepublicationplan.com/2019/10/11/the-link-between-data-sharing-and-citation-counts/ The Scholarly Kitchen considers two… - News
Letter from COPE: June 2020
…reviewer’s comments and about 25% said they believed it is never acceptable to suppress a complete review. The most common reasons cited for editing reviews were related to unacceptable reviewer comments because they were inflammatory, hostile, or otherwise offensive, or factually incorrect. Other important reasons why editors said they edited reviews was because the reviewers were non-compliant with the… - Case
What extent of plagiarism demands a retraction versus correction?
…idea for the method on a blog 2 years earlier. Side by side comparison shows a significant overlap (approximately 25–30% of the article) between the blog and the article, in particular in the rationale for, and description of, the method. The text is rephrased in many places, but there are large sections that are structurally very similar between the article and the blog with some terminology and… - Case
Should stockholders of a pharmaceutical industry declare conflicts of interest in a research paper?
An article was published in Journal A, investigating the efficacy and safety of generic medicine A. The authors did not declare any conflicts of interest. Generic medicine A is manufactured by company A. Before publication in journal A, the same authors published another study in journal B as a preliminary report. No conflicts of interest were declared. In a recently published art… - Case
Ethical conduct of qualitative research studies
Publishers are seeing an increase in submitted data generated from qualitative research studies. These studies are answering important questions such as identifying unmet need or highlighting the lived experience, potentially adding real value to the body of evidence especially in rare diseases. They are often Pharma funded and / or patient advocacy group led. Many of these studies have… - News
In the news: June 2018 Digest
…="_blank">http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2018/01/16/why-has-no-other-european-country-adopted-the-research-excellence-framework/ The sweet-spot for how much governmental oversight should exist is discussed by Xueying Han and Richard Applebaum on the London School of Economics and Political Science website. They surveyed STEM faculty at 25 of the best universities in China to determine their greatest challenges in realizing the… Common ethical and editorial dilemmas of author misconduct: how should we respond?
…0 2001 39 30 9 0 2002 18 14 4 0 2003 22 15 5 2 2004 25* 17 7 1 Total 212 163…Outcomes of editors' attempts to investigate research misconduct
…Lasted >1 year Redundancy 33 7 3 4 48% Unethical research 16 5 4 7 25% Fraud 13 2 2 4 62% Med negligence 10 0 4 6 70% …Member Insight
…interest in a published article; data integrity issues; and academic freedom. Member Insight: eLearning | Seminar sessions May 2022 Two sessions from our 25th anniversary seminar are now available to watch again. We'd like to hear…Code of conduct for COPE meetings and events
…content All COPE policies Page history Last updated: 25 August 2021 Back to top…- News
In the news: September 2021
…a multiracial group of industry professionals to "help individuals at all levels within scholarly publishing organizations implement inclusive policies, procedures and norms". Research integrity STM Working Group on image alterations and duplications has developed draft - Case
Misrepresentation of journal decision on social media
An author submitted an invited paper to a journal and, after a double anonymous peer review, the decision on the paper was to request ‘major revision’. The author decided not to revise the paper, and therefore effectively withdrew the paper, based on disagreements with the reviewers. These disagreements were not discussed with the editor prior to withdrawing the paper. The editor replied to the…