- Event
COPE Forum: July 2023
…-process">Balancing anonymisation and open science during peer-review process Authors from Ukraine wish to retract article published in Russian conference proceedings Complaint over protocol used in special… - Case
Ethics of non-active management of a control group
…for the COPE Forum• Despite apparent local ethics board approval, and a statement from the authors declaring adherence to the Declaration of Helsinki, is it ethical to include a non-active intervention group for a disease which is known to have negative fetal and maternal outcomes?… - Event
COPE Forum: December 2023
…href="https://publicationethics.org/case/consent-forms-forged">uspicion that signed informed consent forms are forged Request for removal from author list for reasons of religious belief Image integrity flags on 15-year-old published… - Case
Ethical conduct of qualitative research studies
…been conducted compliantly in accordance with the EPHMRA guidelines, which state that Ethics committee approval is not required if studies meet the criteria of market research. In addition, these studies are non-interventional and the Health Research Authority tool also indicates that Ethics committee approval is NOT required. However, our interpretation of the COPE guidelines is that ethics… - News
In the news: March 2018 Digest
…PNAS proposes changes to journal authorship policies and procedures to provide insight into which author is responsible for which contributions, better assurance that the list is complete, and clearly articulated standards to justify earning authorship credit. The COPE Case Taxonomy
…should/deserves to be listed as an author is omitted on a submission or publication. Gift authorship When someone who has made little/no contribution to a research project/manuscript is included as an author on a submission or publication. Questionable authorship practice Dubious behaviour, e.g. making inclusion as an author dependent on…- News
In the news: April 2020
…Diversity & Inclusion In a study of gender bias in 145 journals in various areas of research, including 1.7 million authors and 740,00 referees, these authors show that in biomedicine and health journals women authors were treated generally favourably by editors and reviewers. This is in contrast to social science and humanity journals. The authors advocate for… - News
Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing: revised and updated
….org/resources/guidelines-new/principles-transparency-and-best-practice-scholarly-publishing). We encourage authors and anyone else who is unfamiliar with a journal or publisher to use these criteria in assessing a journal. Feedback is welcome. - Event
ISMTE Asian-Pacific Conference
…href="https://publicationethics.org/cope-asia-pacific-workshop-singapore-2018">half day workshop, in collaboration with ISMTE, on Wednesday 28 March 2018, at the Novotel Singapore Clarke Quay, 177A River Valley Road, 179031 Singapore. The theme of the workshop is "Publication ethics". Editors, publishers, authors and all those interested in publication ethics are welcome to attend. The protection of vulnerable groups and individuals
…UK. These standards require that vulnerable populations and individuals from these populations receive specifically considered protections by all involved in the research enterprise, such as researchers and their teams, research sponsors and funders, the relevant research ethics approval committees, authors, editors, reviewers and publishers. Related resources- Case
The careless surgeon
A paper was submitted in which a young surgeon described five patients who died over six months under the care of one surgeon. The author suggested that the surgeon was dangerous and that something should have been done. Nothing was done and the surgeon has since retired. The paper, a very personal one, provides an interesting insight into the difficulties that doctors have dealing with… - Case
Ethical standards in animal research
An author received a manuscript describing the biological behaviour of an infectious agent in an animal model. The manuscript contained new information, but the experimental procedure involved interventions that would not be permitted by UK Home Office regulations. What should the editor do?… - Case
Retractions of primary literature papers: how should a review journal react?
In a recent and very prominent case of publication misconduct resulting in the retraction of 12 research papers (to date), many journals have been included in ‘round-mails’ from the whistleblower and other scientists. Our journal (a reviews and features journal) has published a review from the main author associated with the misconduct, which contains reference to six of the retracted… - Case
Reviewer concerns about transparency of peer review process
Our journal uses an internally transparent process where throughout the editor or peer review process, authors, editors and reviewers are all aware of the identities of who is involved. Reviewers are also told—when initially solicited to do a peer review—that they will be named on the final article manuscript as a reviewer. Prior to publication, the pre-print version of a text is sent to… - Case
Should a journal disclose peer reviewer names?
A journal received a manuscript in July concerning the conditions surrounding the ending of an individual’s contract of employment. Following peer review and revision, the manuscript was accepted and published in October of the same year. Two years later, the journal received a letter from a lawyer representing a client who was suing the former employer discussed in the article. The author of… - Case
Previous publication cannot be verified
…publication policies, but it appears the publications department was disbanded and all employees have left. The publisher has also tried to contact the authors of the paper published in their journal, but their email addresses bounce back. Question for COPE Council What would be the appropriate course of action here? The publisher has been unable to verify if the original paper… - Case
Behaviour of researcher during peer review
…asked the student to use these as templates. The student removed the data from the tables but used the template (structure and heading) to populate their own data. The structure of the tables was not unique but generic in nature. The faculty member remained the senior author of the student’s paper submitted for publication to another journal. The paper was rejected after an initial acceptance. - Research
Editing of reviewer comments: a COPE survey 2020
…Introduction Peer reviewers are asked to contribute intellectual work to assess and improve scholarly publications. As with all work, the quality and characteristics of peer reviews vary. Editors responsibilities include support not only to the peer reviewers who typically volunteer the time and knowledge but also to the authors, who reasonably should expect non-conflicted,… - News
In the news: December 2018 Digest
…supports some of the Plan S content, but opposes others. As this Plan evolves in response to reactions from key stakeholding commuities internationally and Science Europe's overall end plan, the publishing ecosystem will likely change. Controversy Several high profile and controversial papers have prompted vitriolic responses and at times, threats to the authors. Examples include a paper… - News
In the news: January Digest
…increase awareness within the linguistics community of the value of data citation. https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/SCS/article/view/4876 (include image) The authors of this paper present a consensus-based checklist to improve and document the transparency of research reports in social and…