- Event
ISMPP European Meeting 2020
…partnerships Innovating across the data generation and dissemination journey Maximising value of communication content and resonance with audience Futurescaping The meeting will also feature The Training Zone – a satellite session for new publication professionals - on 21 January, and 10 lively roundtable discussion topics. Learn about the meeting at - Case
Undeclared conflict of interest
…the editors. - The journal launched an investigation with the authors' knowledge, and in conjunction with the institution, where the research was conducted. This concluded that the first two allegations were unfounded. But the undisclosed conflict of interest allegation was upheld. Ten of the 13 co-authors subsequently issued a partial retraction and an investigation by the national regulatory body… - Case
HIV homeopathy
…into severely ill (including those who could not walk and were cachectic) and not severely ill. The authors said that they had obtained ethics approval for this study from their own institution in their country of origin and that the Ministry of Health in the country where the trial was conducted had “authorised” the study. We asked the authors whether the participants had been offered… - Case
Reviewer/author conflict of interest
…overlap in the content of his paper and the one he was supposed to be reviewing. While the editors did not feel that Dr B had plagiarised the review manuscript, they were concerned that he had acted unethically. He had accepted an invitation to review a manuscript that was very similar to research that his own laboratory was conducting and planning to submit to the same journal. Although this… - Case
Competing interests question
…promoting this study’s results? The meeting made the following decision: As competing interests were declared, the meeting felt we could go ahead with publishing the evaluation. Competing interests declaration: I am the director of the grant that paid some of the expenses for the conduct of this study, including the first author’s salary. I did not supervise the… - Case
Potentially fake academic affiliation
…a not-for-profit code in State X. Journal A had another paper pending review and the editor rejected that article because of issues about the legitimacy of the institution and possibly the data. The editor thinks that the author may have created a non-profit organisation from which they conduct research (not a traditional academic institution, such as a university or health system). … - Case
Secondary analysis of medical records and ethics committee approval
…patient information had been passed on to a third party. Patients were identified by codes rather than names so that links could be made with different outcomes. Patient names were neither available nor utilised in the analysis and all records were held securely in a password-protected database which was only available to programme team members. They also stated that 'The conduct of this study did not… - Case
Allegation of fraud and insider trading
…advice from two further statisticians, who felt there was no evidence of fraud. The paper was accepted. Recently the journal received a phone call from X who wanted us to know that the company is aggressively touting its stock by saying it has a major paper that will soon appear in a prestigious journal. X also alleged that he had information raising further doubts about the conduct… APAME 2013 Tokyo
…Asia Pacific Association of Medical Journal Editors (APAME) in association with the Japanese Association of Medical Journal Editors joint (JAMJE) at the Japan Medical Association in Tokyo. The themes include responsible conduct of research, digital publishing trends and publication ethics. More details on the congress, including the programme, can be found here:- Event
ISMPP Annual Meeting
…Global Publication Practices: Advancing Ethics and Scientific Integrity in an Era of Data-Sharing 10% off for COPE members using code AM13COPE10 when you register for the conference by 11 April. Highlight of this year’s Annual Meeting program include: Opening keynote… - Event
ISMPP European Meeting 2018: COPE member discount
ISMPP will hold its 2018 European Meeting, Advancing Medical Publications in a Complex Evidence Ecosystem, on 23-24 January, in London, and is offering a 10% discount on the registration fee to COPE members. Access the registration page at, and enter EU18COPE10 in the “Discount Code” field. The 10% discount is available… - Case
Should we have had author consent for a randomised controlled trial of a peer review?
A medical journal conducted a randomised controlled trial of papers submitted to it without getting consent from the authors concerned. An author found out and objected. Should the journal have sought consent from its authors?… - Case
Incorrect allegations from the head of an institute?
…authors affiliations were not correct (some authors who were stated as being at his institute had never been members); and the trial had not been submitted to the local ethics committee. The authors provided us with a document signed by the head of the institute (complainant) stating that the author in question had been a member of his institute in the year that the trial was conducted. They also… - Case
Plagiarism of reviewer's work
We asked the authors how they would prevent this happening in future. They said: “In response to the editors’ comment on the issue of plagiarism, we like to start here by emphasizing that we as well have taken this very seriously. Plagiarism of any kind is not and will not be accepted at our institutions. We have codes of conduct that explicitly stipulate that this is not accepted. In this… - News
Guest editorial: Data availability statements
…School of Public Health-Bloomington, 1025 E 7th St, PH 111 Bloomington, IN, USA 47405 (812) 855-1250 A prerequisite of reproducibility of science is availability of original input data (and statistical code), which should be obtainable by independent investigators. Many journals now require articles to include a Data Availability Statement (DAS). However, we have found that promises of data… - Seminars and webinars
North American Seminar 2019: Ethical challenges in the arts, humanities, and social sciences
At the North American seminar 2019, Kath Burton (Associate Editorial Director of Arts & Humanities, Routledge, Taylor & Francis) presented the initial research findings and the solution put together on the back of some research conducted by COPE, supported by Routledge. The aim of the research was to better understand the publication ethics needs of arts, humanities and social… - Seminars and webinars
WCRI 2019: Responsible authorship
…authors that editors find difficult 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… - News
Research Integrity, Sixth Report of Session 2017-19 from the House of Commons
…committee. Existing models for such a committee (e.g., Australian Research Integrity Committee, the Canadian Panel on Responsible Conduct of Research, the Danish Committee on Research Misconduct) are also suggested but not mandated. The UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO) was established in 2006 as an advisory body to support research integrity in the UK, but membership is voluntary and does not reflect… - Event
ISMPP Asia Pacific Meeting 2019
The 2019 Asia Pacific Meeting of ISMPP, Bridging Global Standards and Regional Practices, will link the fundamental standards that guide medical publications and communications with regional practices. This full-day meeting on 6 September 2019, in Tokyo,… - Case
Author alleges discrimination by institutional report
…different versions of a heavily redacted report from the institution's responsible conduct of research investigation committee report. Because there was no response from the institution for several weeks, the journal published an expression of concern (EOC) and continued periodic chasing of the institution. The institution eventually responded indicating it was not an authorship conflict but…