- Case
Author displays bullying behaviour towards handling editor
A handling editor rejected a paper without review, after consulting with a senior editor. The corresponding author sent an appeal about 2 weeks later where he requested that the paper be given a second chance and be sent for peer review. He added that, in case of a new decision to reject without review, the editor should provide a detailed response to a number of questions and comments raised i… - Case
Request for addition of new authors
A journal received an article submission from two authors. The paper went through several revisions over the course of a year, and was eventually accepted for publication. The authors were informed about acceptance and the paper was sent for copyediting. The editorial office subsequently sent the final version of the paper to the authors for proofreading. On the same day, a request was… - Case
Use of secondary data without proper attribution
…always be possible, practical, or desired, the efforts of those who generated the data must be recognized." www.icmje.org/journals-following-the-icmje-recommendations www.icmje.org… - Case
Reviewer misconduct and its potential impact on an submitted manuscript
…2, March 2022 Another consideration is Reviewer Z’s behaviour. The journal could consider contacting Reviewer Z’s institution to report the unethical practice, especially since it could be part of a pattern of questionable behaviour. Reviewer Z should arguably have recused themselves from reviewing Author X’s paper in the first place because of a conflict of interest. The Forum heard that… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: October 2019
…confidentiality with responsibility in dealing with cases and issues that have implications for other journals. We hope you enjoy this issue of Digest. Best wishes, COPE Chair - News
In the news: March Digest
…target="_blank">https://www.humanitiesindicators.org/content/indicatordoc.aspx?i=86 Diversity and Inclusion Anne Powell, from INASP, talks about the needs of Southern researchers to improve their inclusion in scholarly publishing, with some practical recommendations on how publishers can help.http://blog.inasp.info/scholarly-publishers-improve-research-equity - 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 - News
Peer review focus
Not surprisingly, COPE has substantial resources available regarding peer review and peer review processes are one of our 10 core practices. Peer review comes in many shapes and forms, and the process varies widely among different publications. The fundamental principle of transparency is critical given this variety. COPE asserts that the… - News
Letter from the COPE co-Chairs: March 2019
…I never forgot the experience and share this as we talk about COPE’s Core Practice of Authorship in this month’s Digest. The boundaries and rules around authorship have undergone some transformative changes in the past decades. Now the journal I edit requires a signed ICJME author… - News
Letter from the COPE Vice-Chair: May 2020
…authorship?”. Based on a review of Forum cases related to authorship, this document offers practical advice on addressing the most common issues around authorship. This is especially timely in light of the results from last year’s member survey and a recent study of the - Case
Publication of papers from industry sponsored symposium
…preparation of the article? Also, would it be necessary to print a disclosure statement of financial interest and/or other relationship with commercial entities (including some symposium sponsors) for the authors of each article within their manuscript, although this is not the general current practice in our journal?… - Case
Dispute over authorship and usage of research protocol
In November 2009, the Editor of Journal X received a letter complaining of a serious breach of publication ethics regarding an article already published a month earlier on the Journal’s website. The paper concerned had not yet been published in a full journal issue either online or in print. One of the authors of the letter, Professor X, was a named author on the published paper. His complaint… - Case
Claim from an author that his name should not have been included as author on a paper
Dr R submitted a paper to our journal and has since expressed unhappiness about the way in which our journal has dealt with the issue. The manuscript was submitted to our journal according to the usual accepted procedures. Our journal requires that only a single author (the corresponding author) sign the copyright assignment form (on behalf of all the authors). We require that the author… - Case
Nuisance author
…a lawyer. A formal, legal note should be sent to the author (by email if this is the only known means of contact). Another practical suggestion was to contact Yahoo (as all of the author’s accounts are @yahoo.fr, @yahoo.in or @yahoo.cn) as they take such abuse issues very seriously and may investigate.… - Case
Registration of a randomised control trial
…it's trying to achieve; how common it actually is (ie, pretty normal, pretty low risk); why retrospective registration is not really good enough but why it can be an acceptable approach in some instances as a way to model better practice and thus encourage wider adoption of prospective registration. COPE would suggest if the authors still refuse to retrospectively register, the paper should… - Case
Unresponsive authors delaying publication
The journal received a submission which proceeded through peer review and was recommended for publication. The authors responded to the revision letter, providing a detailed itemised list of changes and revised their manuscript accordingly. The revised manuscript was subsequently accepted for publication. The normal process for articles in this journal is that when papers are accepted a… - Case
Deceased author and author delaying publication
The Forum advised that the journal should keep the manuscript on hold until the editor hears back from the corresponding author. Perhaps the editor in chief or the handling editor of the journal could reach out to the surviving author directly. Journal practices vary about whether all authors or only the corresponding author needs to sign off the proofs. If both authors need to sign off the… - Case
Authorship dispute involving a commercial institution
A paper was published in a journal. After publication, an associate editor of the journal said that they and other colleagues should have been authors on the paper. They cited a patent they helped write that overlapped with the article as proof that they should be authors on the paper. The authors of the paper refuse to add the associate editor and colleagues as authors. Unfortuna…