- Case
Signing on behalf of other authors
The editors received a manuscript from a Far Eastern country ready to accept. The senior author (who has spent a lot of time in the West) was in the US when the editors asked for final signatures to be sent. The senior author instructed his team to collect and fax signatures while he was away and this was sent to the editors. When the signatures were examined by the editors, it… - Guidelines
A short guide to ethical editing for new editors
…infrastructure, editorial policies and ethical processes. Establish relationships with the journal community; outgoing editor, editorial board, reviewers, authors, to learn from their experiences, establish expectations and guidelines, and identify areas for development. Build a relationship with the publisher of the journal and your editorial, production, marketing contacts,… - Case
Author non-disclosure by editor in chief
…journals, authored solely by the editor in chief. The person who wrote the letter of complaint has insisted that his anonymity be protected from the editor in chief. This is because he had previously been, in his view, the victim of a harassment suit (which subsequently failed) by the organisation mentioned in the editorial for interfering in their businesses. This letter made two allegations: (i)… - Case
Author admits failure to credit other authors
…group to determine the source of the error and to resolve the list and order of authors. The AOR acknowledged that he should have credited additional authors. All authors agreed with the corrected list of authors, but the AOR insisted on being the first author and the other authors did not agree. Pursuant to COPE guidelines, the editor contacted the university of the AOR for assistance and… - Case
Suspected contact between reviewer and an author led to coauthorship of the reviewer
A manuscript was submitted via our electronic submission system and processed in accordance with the standard procedures of the journal. This was originally a single author submission, and in the covering letter the author suggested two potential reviewers. The Associate Editor assigned reviewers, choosing reviewer A along the suggestions of the author, and reviewer B from his own list… - Case
Research involving unethical animal experimentation
…international scientific meeting and that an ethical committee for experiments involving animals had approved the study. Documentation was subsequently provided supporting the statement. What should the editor do now?… - Case
Author with recidivist behaviour involving simultaneous submissions
…Journal 1 has received more papers from the same author (some of them as a coauthor): two papers have already been accepted (one of them published online, the other in production), and nine more manuscripts are waiting for peer review. The Editor of Journal 1 wrote to the author informing them that manuscript A was going to be withdrawn for simultaneous submission, and that they needed to receive… - Case
Babies needlessly subjected to a painful procedure for research
…editors wrote to the authors, asking for elucidation and learned that the samples were, indeed, taken by staff when they were collecting another routine sample. The authors added: “We took the chance and asked parents for consent in taking a little more blood . . . our ethics committee would never sanction [the invasive procedure] in normal infants just for research. ” The editors then asked for… - Guidelines
Text recycling guidelines for editors
COPE Text Recycling Guidelines are intended to advise editors and publishers on expected practice when identifying sections of the same text appearing in more than one of an author's own publications. Text recycling guidelines - Case
Unresponsive authors delaying publication
The Forum noted that when an article is posted online “early”, it is possible to withdraw it. A withdrawal notice could state that the article has been withdrawn by agreement between the editors and publisher, for example, because the authors are not responding to the editor’s requests to approve the final version of the manuscript. Journal policy is important. Every journal should have… - Case
Author dispute over need for retraction
…retract the paper. The institution now plans to contact the journal to request that the paper be retracted. If the journal does not retract the paper, what other options are available to highlight the dispute between the authors? Should this dispute be brought to the attention of readers, given that that case for retraction is inconclusive?… - Case
An accusation of racism
…country to be able to afford the gold standard test. They asked an associate editor, an acknowledged authority in this area, to look at the paper and comment on its suitability for publication. S/he recommended outright rejection, a decision with which the editors agreed. Shortly afterwards the author wrote to refute the decision, claiming that the study was one of the few from that particular region… - Case
The missing author
In March 1996, journal A published a case report about an eye condition with two authors credited, Drs X and Y, both radiologists. Exactly two years later, one of their former colleagues (Dr Z) wrote to the editor claiming that she had been responsible for the patient’s care; she was the ophthalmologist on call the night the patient was admitted. She argued that, as the clinician responsible… - Case
Multiple redundant submissions from the same author
…a professional body that the author belongs to or a funder that could be contacted? In the UK, for example, you might contact the General Medical Council (GMC) if the author was a registered doctor. However, the Forum acknowledged that there is only so much the editor can do, and it may be the case that the editor has to accept that there is nothing more he can do. The Forum advised making all the… - Case
Paper submitted for publication without consent or knowledge of co-authors
…paper to another journal. For this submission, co-author A is the corresponding author. All authors (including CA!) agreed to this publication. (NB: Journal B is a journal with a higher impact factor than journal A.) On 3 December 2012, the editor-in-chief of journal A informed co-authors A and CA and all of the other co-authors (B, C, D, E, F, G and H) of the possibility of publishing an… - Case
An authorship dispute and a question about when a paper is considered published
Authors A and B submitted a paper PV1 to an international conference which was accepted by the editor E of the conference proceedings. The copyright of the paper was assigned to the publishers PC of the conference proceedings. The editor E of the conference proceedings is also the editor of an international journal J published by PJ. The editor E invited author A to consider submitting… - Case
Anonymity versus author transparency
The Forum noted that this was an unusual case, and that the only examples of papers published anonymously that they were aware of were in a situation where an author is at risk of physical danger or is in fear for his/her life if his/her name were to be published or associated with specific criticism. The Forum agreed this was an editorial decision and that it is up to the editor to… - Case
The author who wasn’t an author
The editor wrote to the author, enclosing a copy of an editorial on the differences between authorship and contributorship. The author responded, apologising for the mistake and attributing contributorship to the reviewer. The paper was published.… - Case
Late addition of new author to article
…the article in question. The editor should then contact the original author for a full explanation of the circumstances and contributions of the "new" author. At the same time, the editor should contact the "new" author and ask for their perspective on the issue. Depending on the responses, the journal could either allow the addition, continue with the investigation (which may include asking the… - Case
Withdrawal request by an author
We received a request by an author who states not to have contributed to an article published in 2015. The author claims that his name was used without his knowledge and that the corresponding author has been retired for several years and can no longer be reached. At the time of submission, we received a copyright transfer signed with the author’s name (we request all authors to sign the…