- Event
COPE Forum: March 2024
…="https://publicationethics.org/resources/forum-discussion-topics/watchlists-ethical-considerations">Ethical considerations around watchlists. 3. New cases Cases submitted by COPE Members for discussion at the Forum. Author contacts editor-in-chief using personal phone number Publishing corrections for articles in inactive journals 4. Updates to previous cases - News
Guest article: Self-plagiarism in philosophy
…expenditures of time, effort, and finances for important members of the research and publishing communities. Editors, reviewers, and publishers who guide manuscripts through the publication process do so under the illusion that they are stewards of an original contribution to knowledge. The duplicated articles likely displace original articles that otherwise would have been published within the pages of the… - Case
An unpublished PhD thesis included in an institutional library is submitted to an academic journal
…on theses clear. A citation, an acknowledgement or a footnote can all be adequate signals that the article was an adaptation or extension of graduate student research. The editors might also like to request that authors make it clear if the work is based on a thesis which is publicly searchable via the university repository, for example, in a cover letter. Some journals do have very strict policies… - Case
The ethics of drug/medication use evaluation audit cycles and publication of the results
…baseline audit, obtain consent from the patient for inclusion (‘if required by local authorities’), conduct a brief postoperative patient interview regarding pain management and, after discharge, retrospectively collect pain management data from the medical record . Data were submitted to the national project team for collation and assessment, with individual and combined results fed back to… - Case
A case of duplicate publication
…the author submitted to our journal a more extensive article on the same subject, which included more data. This went through our peer review process and was published last year. We were made aware of this problem several months ago. We consulted with the editor-in-chief of the original journal and he feels that it is a double publication and should be withdrawn. At the same time, we… - Case
Secondary analysis of medical records and ethics committee approval
…Council Should the journal reject the manuscript? Should the journal ask the authors to apply for institutional ethical approval to confirm the anonymous or identifying nature of the data? Could this manuscript be published without patient consent? … - News
Allegations of Misconduct webinar summary, April 2019
…target="_blank">https://sourceforge.net/directory/os:mac/?q=digital+image+forensics Nancy Chescheir Q: Do all institutions worldwide have ORI? In other words, what should journal editors do if potential misconduct is arising in an institution that does not have a point of contact for research integrity? A: Internationally there are some institutions that do not place a priority on research integrity,… - Forum discussion topics
Peer review models
…A healthy and rigorous peer review process is critical to the accurate and honest communication of research. It is also a communal effort that brings together multiple stakeholders including authors, editors, publishers, and reviewers. Regardless of what form it takes — be it single-anonymised, double-anonymised, open, or community-driven — peer review is critical in establishing trust in scholarly… - Discussion documents
Citation manipulation
The COPE citation manipulation discussion document defines the key issues and existing solutions around unethical citation practices. COPE welcomes comments which add to this ongoing debate. Manipulative citation is characterised by behaviours intended to inflate citation counts for personal gain, such as: excessive self-citation of an authors’ own work, excessive citation to the… - Case
Dispute arising from peer review of a rejected comment and published correction
In 2016, group A published manuscript X in our journal. In early 2017, group B submitted a comment critical of the published manuscript. Following peer review, in accordance with the journal’s then active policy, the comment was rejected from further consideration. The policy allowed for the author of the original article to be one of the peer reviewers of the comment. The lead author… - Case
Salami publication
…ethical for Journal A to publish the paper. The editors can’t be absolutely sure that this is a case of salami publication without asking the authors to provide a much more detailed paper that they have very little intention of publishing. What should the editors do? Is salami publication a heinous enough crime to warrant all the extra effort and bad… - News
Guest article: Avoiding predatory publishers
…questions relates to the guidelines provided to authors on the publisher’s website, for example, does the publisher have a clear policy regarding potential conflicts of interest for authors, editors, and reviewers? If not, this is an important warning sign because a trusted publisher should make its policies clearly visible on its website. The final set of questions is about the publisher’s… - Forum discussion topics
COPE Forum 9 December 2014: Publication ethics issues in the social sciences
…assess manuscripts where authors argue that their fields should be evaluated using very different criteria than is standard in terms of research ethics and research integrity than other fields of inquiry? Should publishers develop policy to deal with the claim by researchers that Social Science is different from other sciences and needs to be evaluated without ethics review? Should… Publication and research ethics related to geopolitical issues
…race, or religion of the authors. COPE position statements COPE advice to editors on geopolitical intrusions on editorial decisions (2022) The protection of vulnerable groups…- Case
What extent of plagiarism demands a retraction versus correction?
…the apparent deception—the authors did present the method as their own. They recommended that the journal contact the author’s institution. However, it is a judgment call for the editor as to whether the institution is contacted. The institution might appreciate knowing so they can build guidance on citing grey literature into their teaching/training.… - Case
Handling self-admissions of fraud
…confidentiality. In January 2015, we informed the corresponding author that we had received self-admission of fraud from the first author and asked the corresponding author to retrieve original raw data for the figures in question and provide them to us. We also urged the corresponding author to engage the institute ethics committee and get in touch with the first author in gaining a deeper understanding of the… - Case
Competing interests question
…salary of the study’s first author. The evaluator did not supervise the study or write the paper. As competing interests were declared, the editor decided to publish the evaluation. The editor presented the case in an editorial meeting, raising the following concerns: Can we accept this evaluation considering the evaluator is the director of the overall project and may gain from… Website Terms and Conditions
…link does not imply endorsement or approval by us of the linked website, its operator or content. We are not responsible for any website outside the COPE website. Disclaimer The information contained on this website is intended for medical and scientific editors and authors and is provided on an "as is" basis without representations or any kind of warranty made of any kind (whether…- Case
Retrospective correction: how far back do we go?
…transfer to the surgical unit. They pointed out that the baby had never needed a tracheostomy, and that in fact the child had had dysmorphic features with an abnormal upper airway, which may have accounted for the problems that occurred subsequently. This letter was shown to the authors of the case report, who replied; both letters were published in the journal. The reply was an extraordinary brush-off,… Publication ethics issues in AHSS: New study
…new, publication ethics guidance. The organisation is encouraging journal editors to make the most of COPE’s resources available to them. Commenting on the project, Deborah Poff, COPE Chair, added: “This research is part of a renewed commitment by COPE to increase the diversity of our services for all disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields. These findings provide important…