eLearning
Liz Wager, Former Chair of COPE, discusses the COPE eLearning course COPE is committed to improving editors' abilities to deal with publication misconduct.…- News
Letter from the COPE Chair: April 2022
The world has been left reeling following Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine. As a community of publishers, journal editors, and human beings, we are appalled and horrified by the violence we see in Ukraine and we support an immediate end to this conflict. Many publishers and journals have made clear statements and… - Case
Redundant publication
There is no problem in using the same samples for different assays, but it is very important to be explicit. The head of the institution should be informed: non-disclosure is always a reason to inform the head of the author’s institution. This should have been one paper. A statement of redundancy should be published in all three journals and the authors should be blacklisted but the… - Case
Withdrawing from authorship
…(http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html) all authors have responsibility for the data and agree to help in any investigation: “Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work… - Seminars and webinars
Seminar 2021: Introduction to publication ethics
…article in another journal. The case is further complicated by some of the co-authors being editorial board members on the new journal. Back to top Case 3: peer review 'ring' Ana presents the third case of a ‘peer review ring’ where author-suggested reviewers seem highly suspicious, do not have institutional email addresses, and cannot be found online. The… - Case
Anonymous case presentations (without patient consent) on a specialist society website
A specialist society wishes to post “case of the month” on the society website. The society is not proposing to obtain patient consent from all patients, but will anonymise the case reports instead. It has been suggested a case might be anonymised by changing details including age, occupation, or gender. It has also suggested that there is often much to learn from patients who have died, from… - Event
COPE Forum: 6 May 2016
The May COPE Forum will be held on Friday 6 May 2016, 8am to 9.30am (British Summer Time). The COPE Forum will be held virtually via webinar.… - Case
The author who wasn’t an author
A paper was submitted crediting three authors. The paper was sent to one of the journal’s regular statistical reviewers without noticing that she happened to be the second author. She wrote back to say that she had not been involved in writing the manuscript, nor had she seen this paper before. She did say, however, that she had supervised the computer input of the questionnaire data and that… - News
Attention COPE members! Changes to the website
The COPE website is undergoing a redesign which involves moving the members database. While this is ongoing, members will not be able to change their details on the website. Members will be able to continue using the website, browsing all the content. Members will also be able to login and submit cases, but will not be able to change their personal details or the details of the journal.… - Event
COPE 25th anniversary seminar, 2022
…editors/publishers and universities. The seminar sessions will be of interest to editors, publishers, authors and all those interested in publication ethics. #C0PE25 Creating a culture of publication integrity together Keynote address Book wars: the impact of the digital revolution on Anglo-American trade publishing John B Thompson discusses the digital revolution in… - News
In the news: January 2018 Digest
…target="_blank">http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0187394 But maybe this will all be a thing of the past when automated tools are writing our scientific papers, in the not too distant future? - Event
APAME 2013 Tokyo
…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: EASE/ISMTE joint meeting
COPE will be holding an interactive workshop at the joint meeting of the European Association of Science Editors (EASE) and the International Society of Managing and Technical Editors (ISMTE). In this workshop, a number of cases based on real-life examples brought to COPE, and covering some of the most pressing problems currently faced by editors and journals, will be discussed. Co-Secretary…- Guidelines
Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing
…copyright terms for published content should be clearly stated on the website and in the content. The copyright terms should be separate and distinct from the copyright of the website. The copyright holder should be named on the full text of all published articles (HTML and PDF). If the copyright terms are described in a separate form, this should be easy to find on the website… - Seminars and webinars
Seminar 2021: Keynote address
…have been taking place in universities and scholarly publishing for the past 40 years and the similar pressures which each industry is having to deal with globally. The unique historical features that keep each role separate and distinct will be discussed, and the current critical requirements that are necessary for the continued success of both scholarly research and its publication will be… - Case
Professional misconduct of one author
…a valid reason for issuing a correction to the literature. Moreover, if ICMJE authorship criteria are being used, the reason for removal of an author needs to be added; it must be an academic reason; and all authors would have to agree and sign off in… - Event
COPE Forum: 9 December 2014
COPE's December Forum will be on Tuesday, 9 December 2014 at 9am (GMT). The Forum will be by Webinar. Click here for full details.… - Case
Attempted dual publication
…X said that the Japanese authors were clearly attempting dual publication, were therefore completely unethical,and should be reprimanded severely. As editor of journal A,what should be done about: 1 The issue of apparently simultaneous submission to two journals? 2 The breach of con?dentiality by expert X (and also expert Y, commissioned by another journal B)?… - News
Case discussion: Low-risk study with no ethics committee approval
…nature (eg, demographics and how people learnt of the campaign) and were aggregated, thereby precluding identification of any individuals. Question(s) for the COPE Forum Would retrospective research ethics committee review be appropriate to consider in this situation? Forum Advice and Follow-up The Forum advised the journal editor to judge… - Event
COPE Forum: 12 February 2016
The February COPE Forum will be held on Friday 12 February 2016, 3pm to 4.30pm (GMT). The COPE Forum will be held virtually via webinar.…