- Case
Identifying patient information published in a figure
A reader emailed a society, which forwarded the message to the journal office, noting that he can read the name of a patient in a figure in a published letter to the editor. The letter was published online 3 months earlier and had just appeared in print; it was the print version the reader saw. The reader asked if the patient's name could be removed. The journal’s author instructions alr… - Guidelines
A short guide to ethical editing for new editors
…class="resource-download-inline__container"> Document A short guide to ethical editing for new editors PDF 577 KB … - Event
COPE Forum: September 2023
…href="https://publicationethics.org/case/author-refusal-sign-ethics-form">Author refusal to sign an ethics form 23-18 Author retracts request to be removed from author list 23-19 Handling undisclosed peer reviewer conflict Cases submitted… - News
Case Discussion: Ethics of non-active management of a control group
…office of persons responsible for research governance at the institution. The flowchart “What to do if you suspect an ethical problem with a submitted manuscript.” (https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.2.19) The other relevant COPE guidance is the document “Cooperation between research… - News
In the news: March Digest
…16. www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/02/19/2020-03189/request-for-information-public-access-to-peer-reviewed-scholarly-publications-data-and-code Predatory Publishing David… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: January 2020
…update on the status of research integrity in China which is included in this issue. Also, ICMJE has recently posted a very helpful set of “recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing and publication of… - News
In the news: February 2022
Each month, COPE Council members find and share publication ethics news. This month the news includes articles on diversity, preprints, research integrity, and more. Preprints This preprint describes the findings of a working group organised by ASAPbio that set out to define key features of preprint review processes. As Covid-19… - Case
Possible suppression of data
This is a summary of a problematical research interaction between a pharmaceutical company and academic collaborators at a University involving a widely used drug. A pharmaceutical company appears to have exerted undue influence in an attempt to control the scientific literature. The research involved an important retrospective secondary endpoint in the three key… - Case
Removal of an author
A paper was submitted to a journal with authors A, B, C, D and E. The paper was peer reviewed. Before acceptance, the corresponding author asked for a new author, author F, to be added, and an existing author, author C, to be removed. The editorial office asked all of the authors (authors A, B, C, D, E and F) to complete a change of authorship request form and for the corresponding autho… - Case
Behaviour of researcher during peer review
An anonymised manuscript was sent to a senior faculty member (researcher A) of a well-known institute for peer review. The faculty member was known to have pedigree in publication on the topic of the manuscript for many years. The manuscript was rejected with comments. Based on editorial opinion and other comments, the manuscript was rejected by the editor-in-chief. Six weeks after rejection, i… - Case
Does co-publication of an editorial constitute duplicate publication?
A publisher co-published an editorial across its portfolio of six journals. Co-publication was clearly flagged in each journal. Subsequently, there was a discussion on PubPeer on the editorials, with one comment suggesting that co-publication is the same as duplicate publication. The publisher believes that editorials that do not report on the results of research and which… - News
In the news: June Digest
10/06/19 Peer review Peer review is the hallmark of scientific and scholarly publications. These authors explore 5 principles of good peer review and suggest ways for journals to use these to underpin best practices. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/leap.1222 In… - News
Case Discussion: Withdrawal of paper at proof stage
Case Summary Case 19-11 An original paper was submitted to a journal, peer reviewed, revised by the authors, and accepted by the manuscript editor. It was scheduled for publication 3 months later. After the paper was copyedited and typeset, the corresponding author was… - News
In the news: March Digest
…="https://www.rgs.org/getattachment/Professionals/Consultation/RGS-IBG-Plan-S-response-Feb19.pdf/?lang=en-GB" target="_blank">https://www.rgs.org/getattachment/Professionals/Consultation/RGS-IBG-Plan-S-response-Feb19.pdf/?lang=en-GB Allegations of misconduct Why do authors publish in unethical journals? Some are deceived, but some actively seeke them out. so, at least two different approaches to the problem of authors publishing in predatory journals are required. - Case
Paper submitted for publication without consent or knowledge of co-authors
An article was submitted by corresponding author (CA) on 19 December 2011. After several revisions the article was accepted for publication on 23 March 2012. The article was published online 8 May 2012.At the time of submission, CA was a PhD student at a research centre (X).On 21 November 2012, co-author A (also head of the research group) contacted the publisher and… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: March 2020
…resources, including discussion documents, flowcharts, guidelines, and case studies under 10 distinct types of publications ethics issues. It allows you to find all the relevant material on an issue (eg, authorship and contributorship). Our case discussion this month is case 19-11: Withdrawal of… - News
In the news: July & August 2022
…="https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2022/07/07/announcing-peer-review-week-2022-an-interview-with-the-co-chairs/">Peer Review Week 2022 (Sept 19-23, 2022) is Research Integrity: Creating and Supporting Trust in Research Research integrity Dilemma Games, an app that makes a game out of resolving research-integrity dilemmas, aims to get researchers… - Case
Plagiarism and copyright of material without permission
The presenters found an e-book where all of the 'chapters' comprised articles from different issues and volumes of their journal. These were used without the journal’s permission or any form of approval. The journal’s co-publisher neither gave permission nor was contacted. Also, no one contacted the authors of the articles involved for permission. The journal is open access with… - Case
Dual submission and editor’s failure to take action
An article was submitted to our journal (journal A) in March. According to the journal’s working policy, the article was initially reviewed inhouse and comments were sent to the author. The authors replied to the comments but did not agree to the suggestion to convert the article to a short report. A rather impolite letter was sent by the author criticising the policies of the journal. We sent… - Case
Publishing complications and patient safety
Journal A is dedicated to communication about practical treatments related directly to patient and personal experiences. These ongoing discussions have been part of this specific medical profession for the past 50 years and journal A is a platform for these discussions. Regarding new treatments and new developments, permission from the local medical ethical commission is mandatory as wel…