- Case
Pre-publication in a discussion paper series
…website so that the publisher has the right of first publication. The publisher stated that upon acceptance for publication, authors may deposit the abstract of their paper or an executive summary on this website. They said that in accordance with the publisher policy for online deposit of work, preprints or post-prints should only be deposited into institutional repositories or faculty websites… - Case
Is there a time limit for submitting a critique of a published article?
…they referred to the instructions to authors on the journal website which states that comments on published articles must be submitted within three months and will be published alongside a reply from the original author. The journal policy section has a similar statement but without a time period. The corresponding author replied that no concerns or objections should be considered by the journal as… - News
Ethical Editing – Winter 2010 issue
Download the Winter issue of Ethical Editing, the newsletter from COPE (http://publicationethics.org/newsletters). This issue's theme is ‘misconduct’. We would very much welcome any feedback or comments you may have. Please contact us via the website.… - News
Ethical Editing – Summer 2011 issue
Download the Summer issue of Ethical Editing, the newsletter from COPE.This issue's theme is 'Exploring the ethical landscape'. We would very much welcome any feedback or comments you may have. Please contact us via the website.… - News
Ethical Editing – Autumn 2011 issue
Download the Autumn issue of Ethical Editing, the newsletter from COPE.This issue's theme is ''Evaluating current ethical practices''. We would very much welcome any feedback or comments you may have. Please contact us via the website.… - News
Ethical Editing – Winter 2011 issue
Download the Winter issue of Ethical Editing, the newsletter from COPE.This issue's theme is ''Ethics around the globe''. We would very much welcome any feedback or comments you may have. Please contact us via the website.… - News
Ethical Editing – Spring 2012 issue
Download the Spring issue of Ethical Editing, the newsletter from COPE.This issue's theme is ''15 Years of COPE!''. We would very much welcome any feedback or comments you may have. Please contact us via the website.… - News
Ethical Editing – Summer 2012 issue
Download the Summer issue of Ethical Editing, the newsletter from COPE. This issue's theme is '' Correcting the literature''. We would very much welcome any feedback or comments you may have. Please contact us via the website.… - News
Case discussion: Editor manipulation of impact factor
…in this case the additions were suggested by the reviewers along with other references, or coercively required by the journal editor. Still, the author could decline or find better references. In addition, editorials should not be used to manipulate impact factors through journal self-citation, but using an editorial to cite and introduce articles in an issue would not be citation manipulation. - News
Post-publication conflicts of interest
…Undisclosed conflict of interest in a published article: updated flowchart The COPE flowcharts are consistently rated by members as being among the most useful and frequently consulted COPE resources. Available in different languages, they offer practical guidance to handle a variety of ethical issues encountered in scholarly publishing either before or after publication. The… - Case
Excessive self-citation in a book chapter
…editorial role and do not have access to any of the editorial features nor do they review the chapters. Only the academic editor performs the review. Assistants to the editors are mentioned only in the imprint page as such. They are not present on the book cover or anywhere else. This is how their support to the editor is acknowledged. Question for COPE Council How should the… - Case
Potential plagiarism
…without making it clear that they are a quotation, represents intellectual theft. Moreover, it might also be breach of copyright. If the author is a young researcher or his or her first language is not English, then a gentle warning and advice on how to cite (ie, quotation marks and/or reference to the original article) should suffice. Of a senior or experienced researcher, some COPE members take the… - Discussion documents
Handling competing interests
…a conflict of interest (COI) as a situation in which a person or organisation is involved in multiple interests, financial interest, or otherwise, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation of the individual or organisation. PLoS defines COI as anything that interferes with, or could reasonably be perceived as interfering with, the full and objective presentation, peer review, editorial… - Case
Using industry knowledge to evaluate an ethics case
…publisher A can use these insights, are there any limitations on the ways they could be applied? If, for example, publisher A ultimately shares publisher B's concerns but the editors defend the methodology, could publisher A potentially proceed with a correction or retraction? … - Case
Reviewer citation manipulation
This is a general scenario which has been observed in increasing numbers at our journal. We are finding that some reviewers provide a referee’s report which include a request to cite a number of papers, which on closer inspection are all authored by the referee. We would like to hear whether Forum participants have any policies or procedures for reviewers who are clearly manipulating… - Event
APAME 2013 Tokyo
…with the Japanese Association of Medical Journal Editors joint (JAMJE) at the Japan Medical Association in Tokyo. The themes include responsible conduct of research, digital publishing trends and publication ethics. More details on the congress, including the programme, can be found here: - Case
Invasive intervention without consent
…committee approval, but the editor was worried about the level of consent.The authors were therefore contacted and they responded: “Besides the approval from the local ethics committee, all patients or their relatives had to give spoken as well as written informed consent before inclusion in the treatment group. The majority of the patients were awake, and therefore able to understand the information… - Case
Erratum query
We have been notified that an erratum is about to be published on a Research article in Journal A, which is one of the key references supporting a Review article subsequently published in Journal B. All parties are agreed that the erratum (which corrects an oversight in reporting methodology) in no way affects either the data presented in the paper or the conclusions reached. - Case
Balancing anonymisation and open science during peer-review
…should we ask the authors to anonymise this information as well? And what is the proper balance between open science practices and maintaining the integrity of the single or double-blind anonymous review process? Questions for the Forum When a manuscript sent for anonymous or double-anonymous peer review process includes information about the protocol registration and raw…