- Flowcharts
Changes in authorship: Addition of extra author – before publication
COPE's guidance, as a flowchart, on the addition of an extra author before publication. Changes in authorship: Addition of extra author - before publication - Translated resources
¿Qué constituye una autoría?
…COPE ¿Qué constituye una autoría? El presente documento apunta a estimular intercambio en relación a los temas más comunes de la autoría enfrentados por miembros de COPE. Trata de las guías existentes en asuntos de autoría, compila algunos principios básicos para ayudar a prevenir problemas comunes y presenta algunos de los temas más complicados que han surgido en intercambios anterior… - Webform
Registration for COPE seminar 2021
…href="https://publicationethics.org/privacy">COPE privacy policy, and the Zoom privacy policy. Closing date for registration You must be registered to attend a session. Registration will close on Monday 20 September 2021. Register now… - Case
Duplicate publication based on conference proceedings
A paper was submitted to Journal A and concern was raised by a reviewer that a substantial part of the paper had been previously published in two other journals. This point was taken up with the authors, who denied any lack of originality and maintained that their manuscript contained previously unpublished data. They did admit that part of the work had been presented as an invited lecture at a… - Forum discussion topics
Author behavioural misconduct
…research misconduct?, Accountability in Research, Volume 26, Issue 2, pages 123-137 Kuo M. (2017) Scientific Society defines sexual harassment as scientific misconduct on science.org, 20 September 2017 Back to top Comments from the COPE Forum, December 2022… - News
In the news: September 2020
…Allies’ which provides best practices to address racial disparities in the scholarly publishing community. This is the first in a series of 3 ‘toolkits for equity’. The authors describe their experience of an active - Case
Stolen article
The Forum was updated that there has been a further development: one of the authors of article A submitted a new article to the journal, a shorter version of which was published in the conference proceedings. Generally, COPE recommends that authorship issues should be resolved at the institutional level. Institutions are best placed to investigate these issues, especially if there was… - Case
Author withdraws manuscript upon payment request
…front about its charges and its business model—for example, on the home page, on the about page, at the top and in bold of the author instructions page. Hence the journal should look at its information for authors and website presentation about fees. The COPE Principle of… - Case
Post-publication correction because of lack of consent
…recommended best practices for dealing with material that has to be redacted for legal/ethical reasons? … - Forum discussion topics
Bias in peer review
…aligns most closely with COPE Core Practice: Peer Review Processes, its impact is wider reaching. The explicit and implicit biases, or conscious and unconscious biases, of editors and peer reviewers could prejudice which manuscripts are reviewed or ultimately accepted for publication. As COPE member Cambridge University Press explains in their… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: September 2019
The 16th-20th of September is Peer Review Week, with this year's theme Quality In Peer Review. This is now an anticipated time in the calendar for many of our members around the world and a number of events focus on issues related to peer review and publication ethics and integrity. As a long time editor of journals and books, I know… - Case
Low risk study with no ethics committee approval
…A suggestion was for the authors to provide more specific information on the type of consent that was obtained and for this to be published as an appendix to the paper. Often the need for approval is different in different countries and this COPE document provides some helpful information. - Case
An unethical ethics committee?
…the potential danger and notified the lead author that it would obtain independent advice. It asked for clarification on nine points. Six weeks later the lead author wrote to his colleagues that after discussion with the chairman of the ethics committee the latter had agreed the proposal was part of normal clinical practice rather than a clinical trial so did not require ethics committee approval.… - Case
A patient was given an experimental course of complementary medicine when a standard treatment was available
…the authors’ medical practice and judgement into question. _ The editor should write to the authors again with a short deadline, informing them that the matter would be referred to both the authors’ employers and the appropriate regulatory body. _ Even if the patient had pleaded for the alternative therapy, the fact that the disease is infectious and potential fatal means that public interest would… - Case
Institutionalised policy of gift authorship?
…authorship. The university is in need of education, and the editor should write not only to the authors’ departments but also to the faculty heads explaining the details of this case and emphasising the fact that gift authorship is an unacceptable practice.… - 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 - Seminars and webinars
Image manipulation
…pointing out that journals have variable practices for detection. Raw data availability The market for screening tools is growing, but these should be used alongside expert verification. Detection is very difficult when raw data are not available, and this in itself should be a flag that further investigation is necessary. Paper mills routinely use falsified or AI-generated fake images… - Case
Misuse of post-publication literature evaluation service
An online post-publication literature evaluation service that publishes only positive reviews, aiming to highlight the best papers in medicine, received an evaluation of a paper that had been published in a journal for which the evaluator of the paper acts as editor in chief. The evaluator did not declare any competing interests but the editor dealing with the evaluation knew about his/her… - Case
A member of an author group listed on a paper denies authorship
…concerning that study. This would give the reader more confidence in the system. All agreed that the best course of action is to have a policy on this issue for future such incidences.… - News
Letter from the COPE co-Chairs: August 2018
…articles, then talk about what type of citation practice is considered manipulation, that could result in suppression of a journal in the Journal Citation Report (JCR). Reviewers and editors are at the front line, determining the academic value of citations to ensure the integrity of the content. Geri Pearson COPE co-chairs