- Case
Allegation of authorship misconduct
We recently received a complaint about an article which was published in our journal, which was originally sent to Journal X and copied to us. The complainant claimed that they had submitted an article to Journal X which was rejected. They alleged that their ideas and data had been leaked, stolen by another group of researchers, and published in our journal. We have asked the authors and… - Case
Questionable authorship information
We have a paper in production that presents refutations of common criticisms made of a domestic cleaning or skin care ingredient. The majority of the authors are scientific research officers of a firm that sells products containing the ingredient. One other author is stated to be associated with a university but does not appear to hold a PhD. It is stated in the corrected proofs that this in… - News
In the news: May 2020
…global pandemic is explored by these authors who develop a strong argument for the importance of social science now. At the same time, the pandemic makes it incredibly difficult to employ some of the tools of social science and for students and professionals to work. - News
Letter from COPE: June 2020
…take this moment to recognise that scholarly publishing is not sufficiently diverse and representative, and to reiterate COPE's commitment to improving equity and inclusivity in our areas of influence, including within our own organisation. The strategic plan we published in February specifically identifies… - Case
Rescind a decision post-acceptance prior to publication
A paper that has been accepted for publication in a journal has recently been found to be unsuitable for publication. The authors have been highlighted in other journals for disseminating misinformation regarding the treatment of COVID-19. An expression of concern has been issued on another article, similar to the one we are close to publishing, in another publisher's journal. We looked into th… - Case
Permission to publish a case report
A journal published ahead of print a peer-reviewed scientific letter by Drs A (corresponding), B, C, D and E with a description of four patients who underwent a certain procedure. One of the cases took place in hospital X. Dr C works at hospital X. However, the corresponding author (Dr A) and the other 2 authors (Drs B and D) do not work for hospital X. The journal received an em… - Case
Complaint over protocol used in special issue
We launched a Special Issue (SI) focusing on the application of a particular clinical protocol, with guest editors that have an extensive clinical history in applying this protocol. This specific protocol is currently used and promoted by a small subset of practitioners, with limited wider recognition. The SI concluded with a substantial number of published articles, including several case repo… Outcomes of editors' attempts to investigate research misconduct
…Plagiarism 7 2 2 2 14% Total (%) 79 16 (20) 15 (19) 23 (29) 36 (46) In about one in five cases, the individual was exonerated. But in about 20% of cases,…- News
Vacancies on COPE Council
…issues it faces. Other general Council tasks, such as the Forum and responding to member queries, are undertaken electronically. It is anticipated that the work of Council Members amounts to about 2–3 hours per week dependant on the activity at that time. This is in addition to attendance at meetings. "It was a very exciting period collaborating with COPE people. It was very… - News
In the news: December 2020
…data resulted in a split decision - about 40% thought "yes", 47%" maybe or not sure and the rest, "no". More senior scientists were more likely to say "yes". Jeremy Fox, the author, offers several ideas about the poll results and why public sharing is… - News
In the news: September 2021
…journals, as well as studying their rates of self-citation or citation of other journals in the MDPI family. There is a correlation between such citation patterns and characteristics of predatory journals. Global south Three consecutive teleconferences were held to - News
Guest editorial: Data availability statements
This is a guest editorial and opinions may not reflect official COPE guidance or policies. The gap between promise and reality Jasmine Jamshidi-Naeini[1], Andrew W. Brown[2],[3], Wasiuddin Najam[1], Colby J. Vorland[1], Stephanie Dickinson[1], David B. Allison[1] [1]Department of Epidemiology and… - Case
Multiple complainants for a single article
We received four letters of accusation on the same published article from 4 different email addresses (namely A, B, C, D) consecutively with the interval of each being 1 month. The first letter of accusation identified several issues with the use and interpretation of statistics, and noted that no reference number was provided for the study’s ethics approval. In response the editorial o… - News
In the news: January 2018 Digest
…target="_blank">http://www.icmje.org/news-and-editorials/fake_predatory_pseudo_journals_dec17.html and in other news… Nordic countries are collaborating to produce "the Nordic List" - a common list of reputable publishing channels - Case
Request for a retraction from a pharmaceutical company
A journal recently received an 11 page letter via email titled ‘request for a retraction’ from a pharmaceutical company (PC). They have issues with one of our critically appraised topic(s) which critically appraises two papers that were funded by PC and written by employees at PC. The two papers were published in separate journals. Our critically appraised topic (CAT) was peer reviewed… - Case
Author retracts request to be removed from author list
An author of a coauthored article published in our journal ten years ago contacted the outgoing editors with a request to have their name removed. The author in question is Dr A of University 1 and they are the paper’s first author. Their stated reason for doing so was that they had recently discovered errors in a table in the paper. The second author on the paper, Dr B, provided the original d… - News
In the news: June Digest
…is a transformative agreement if it seeks to shift the contracted payment from a library or group of libraries to a publisher away from subscription-based reading and towards open access publishing" and then describes several different types. - News
In the News: July Digest
…Intellectual property Preprints are one of the fastest growing types of content, at around 30% a year for the last two years, compared to 2-3% article growth during the same period. - 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… COPE Privacy notice
…how we use it, when we share it with others, and how we keep it secure. This notice also explains your rights in relation to your personal data, and what to do if you have any concerns about how we process your personal data. This notice was last updated on 23 August 2023. Page contents Who we are Our contact…