- Case
Authorship dispute during the review process
During the review process for a manuscript submitted to our journal, one of the reviewers alerted us that the manuscript appeared to be the work of a collaborator (Dr X) who was not listed as an author on the paper. It became clear that the manuscript’s corresponding author (Dr Y, affiliation A) was a postdoctoral researcher supervised by Dr X (previously at affiliation A, recently moved to… - Case
Authorship dispute involving a commercial institution
…this inhouse and that the patent they co-wrote and that overlaps with the article should be enough to determine authorship. For the moment, no action has been taken. Given that the complainant is an associate editor, the journal would like to ensure that all actions have been considered. Question for the Forum What further actions… - Case
How to correct an incorrect decision to publish a flawed paper
…The paper does not discuss these uncertainties, and they have been ignored in references to the findings in later papers. Although this reinforces our view that we were wrong to accept the original paper as published, there is always room for argument about statistical analysis, so we regard this as a less serious problem than the inconsistency between the discussion and the tables. The paper… - News
Tackling the problem of paper mills
…embark on a joint project which will first seek to understand the scale of the problem of paper mills, and outline the key issues, challenges and solutions Based on the results of this research, a plan will be produced and executed on how to tackle paper mills at source. If you would like to tell us about your personal or professional experience of the problem, or that of your organisation, please - Flowcharts
Suspected ethical problem in a submitted manuscript
COPE's guidance, as a flowchart, on what to do if you suspect an ethical problem with a submitted manuscript. Suspected ethical problem in a submitted manuscript - Case
Authorship order dispute
…authorship order. The author (Dr D) who is refusing to sign the copyright undertook a substantial early literature review for the manuscript but this was taken over by another colleague (Dr E) when Dr D had to leave due to a long term illness. Dr C was the initiator of the subject matter for the study and oversaw the early directions of Dr D’s efforts. The manuscript was ultimately put together by… - News
Authorship and Contributorship focus: an editor view and research institution view
…guideline How to handle authorship disputes: a guide for new researchers. These resources reflect a wide range of authorship issues encountered in the publication process: Undeserving authorship Disputes around author order Requests to withdraw from the author list after submission… - Webform
COPE authorship workshop 10 February 2021
…REGISTRATION FOR THIS WORKSHOP IS CLOSED Online cases workshop for COPE members Wednesday 10 February 2021 15:00-16.30pm (GMT); 10.00-11.30am (EST) The authorship workshop is free for COPE members but spaces are limited to the first 50 applicants. Only those registered will be… FORUM DISCUSSION TOPIC: How should a journal deal with persistent complainers?
Every so often a journal may get not one, but a series of complaints from the same source. These complaints may be directed at an author, an editor, or the journal in general. If these complaints turn out to be well founded, obviously there is a serious problem with the publication. However, we are aware of cases where a complainant continuously comes up with cases that turn out to be…- Case
Inappropriate authorship on students paper
…was questioned on authorship criteria. If it was the supervisor’s project and the students had helped, then why were there so many students listed (13 in all)? If it was the students’ project, which is a requirement of their curriculum, then why was the supervisor the first author? He/she should be acknowledged only. The authors decided to withdraw the article on the grounds that they wanted… - Case
Inability to contact an author to obtain permission to publish
…responding. Author E has contacted a colleague of author A at the overseas university that author A worked in but that person does not know how to contact author A, nor does another student from that country who studied in author E’s laboratory at the same time. The university that author A worked in is not open due to hostilities, and their website gives no contact information Authors B, C, D and… - Case
Request to remove author from submitted manuscript due to academic misconduct
…platform to provide context. The second suggestion was to consider suppressing the name of the author who has been accused of behavioural misconduct. This is an uncommon practice and is generally used to protect an author from the ramifications of working on a particular type of research. Editors can again refer to their authorship guidelines to direct them, thinking about how they map on to cases… - News
Peer Review Resources: Peer Review Week 2019
…a manuscript flowchart laying out the steps in the decision process that you might go through to decide whether or not you should accept the request. How to spot potential manipulation of the peer review process infographic shows the features or patterns of activity… - Case
Should editors get involved in authorship disputes?
_ The American did not do the research; he generated the hypothesis that the Finns tested, using the data they had generated. _ He could be a contributor, therefore, as he meets the criteria for authorship, and his money was also accepted, suggesting collaboration. _ The American published a letter in the journal about the Finnish data, so he has been able to respond to the findings. _ It is… - Case
An anonymous letter in response to qualitative research
…authors, who responded by saying that the paper did not specify how many women were included and that the interviews had been done by the wife of one of the authors. The original manuscript was checked to reveal that the number of women in the study had been edited out, although this was supposed to have been included in a longer version published on the web. In fact, the longer version had never been… - News
Case discussion: Authors’ contributions and involvement by medical communications company
…href="https://publicationethics.org/files/Recognise_Potential_Authorship_Problems.pdf">How to recognise potential authorship problems” has some useful hints and tips in this regard. COPE Council Member, Trevor Lane on behalf of the COPE Education Subcommittee Read June 2019… - Seminars and webinars
North American Seminar 2016: Can you spot a fake? The trends of fake peer reviews
…Download presentation: Can you spot a fake? The trend of fake peer reviews [PDF, 848KB] … - Case
Institutional investigation of authorship dispute
…the COPE guidelines, 'Request for addition of extra author after publication'. They said they would consider legal action against the institution. We let the institution know, through another contact, that an option for contributors who do not meet criteria for authorship is to be acknowledged and we confirmed the investigation is confidential so will not have affected their reputation; we… - Case
Problem with figures
…our readers has noticed a potential problem with one of the figures in your paper (see below) and I'd like to get your input before deciding how to respond. “I am writing with regard of manuscript XXX recently published in XXX. These studies raise significant expectations in XXX patients, because the proposed strategy achieved unanticipated therapeutic success in a preclinical model of… - Case
Disputed change in authorship
…the change in name was illegal and including author B was unethical. Questions for COPE Council Should the journal retract the article until a decision is taken? How should the journal react given that the situation seems to be a matter of personal differences between the removed author and the remaining authors supported by their higher authorities?