Cookie policy
…each page how you got to the site what you click on while you’re here This data is anonymous and does not contain personal information, such as IP address. COPE Privacy policy and questions Please ensure you have also read the COPE privacy policy to understand how…- Case
Ethical status of authors’ actions?
A consultant in public health and a consultant clinical biochemist employed by a health authority submitted a paper. It sought to address the question of benzodiazepine abuse and re-sale on the black market. The authors identified the practices with the highest prescribing rates for benzodiazepines, and asked GPs to agree to request urine samples from patients with a benzodiazepine… - Case
Author anonymity at the final proofreading stages
…accepted, it may require some final proofreading (eg, footnote cross references, typos, etc). It is easier to do final checks on copies that include the author details. No further decisions as to whether to publish are taken at this stage. However, the reviewers are given the choice as to whether to review a re-submission at any stage, including after acceptance. Also, some individuals who had acted as… - News
In the news: January 2018 Digest
…="http://blogs.plos.org/absolutely-maybe/2017/11/30/re-branding-retractions-and-the-honest-error-hypothesis/ " target="_blank">http://blogs.plos.org/absolutely-maybe/2017/11/30/re-branding-retractions-and-the-honest-error-hypothesis/ Journal management More on predatory journals…. - News
Letter from COPE: April 2024
…to peer review a manuscript" has been updated to include recommendations around AI, potential conflicts of interest, and mentoring opportunities. Read COPE Digest… - Case
Ethical approval and fabrication of results
…patients? Could it be applied to the later retrospective study or do researchers normally have to re-apply for approval? Should we further investigate the suggestion that the author may have fabricated the results? What do we do if we can’t actually locate the people from whom they allegedly obtained ethics approval? … - Case
Article sent to reviewer by mistake
…had already been through peer review. In addition, they explained why they disagreed with reviewer A's concerns. However, reviewer A would have the option of writing a letter based on the published version, to which the authors could then respond. Reviewer A has re-iterated their concerns and expressed an intention to write such a letter. For discussion: How should… - Case
Suspected systematic data fabrication
The editor received a response from one of the authors in which the author stated that he had re-evaluated the results of all of the parameters and found an error in one of the figures. The raw data and covering note have been forwarded to the third party who raised the suspicion in the first instance and also to an independent statistician so that they can analyse the data and evaluate the… - Case
Retract, correct, or both?
…better to do this in the form of a correction, setting out the circumstances and including any supplementary information supplied by the claimant, or to retract the paper and allow the claimant to re-submit a revised version, accompanied by a notice of some kind. And whether it would be worth publishing a statement of concern in the meantime while investigations are ongoing. The paper itself is… - Case
Unethical private practice
…report this individual, but were unable to find contact information as their website is not in English. We also contacted journal A and journal B to notify them of our concerns, in the event that they also wished to investigate this author; neither journal has responded. Two months later, we re-sent the notification to university X general email address and received an out of office… - Case
Author impersonating corresponding author without knowledge of coauthors
…as the author names are listed on the paper without their consent. The Forum suggested the journal may wish to seek legal advice. One suggestion was to retract the paper, and re-publish if the licensing issues are resolved. The majority of the Forum were in agreement that the paper should not be hosted by the publisher any longer in its current state. The paper should be removed and a note… - Case
Behaviour of researcher during peer review
…tables were generic, of the sort that might be found in sample tables available in word processing software or similar, then the reviewer's transgression may be minor. Conversely, if the text labelling in the rows and columns was unique to the manuscript under review then this may be more serious. Re-using unique content could be plagiarism, depending on the nature of the text. While the… - Case
Exposing citation manipulation and fraud in the community
…fake identities have also been re-evaluated. Some of these will need to be retracted due to lack of scientific soundness, while other articles have been found to be sound so they will remain part of the published literature. The publisher has noted via Publons that the guest editors have acted as peer reviewers for other publishers, and it is possible that they have also been involved, or… - Case
Retraction request after university investigation found no evidence of fraud
…a retraction on the basis that the university investigation did not support their charges against Dr Y. An exposé reported by Professor Z re-stated the claim of fraud and was forwarded to the journal. The journal contacted Professor Z (head of department). Professor Z replied with details of the situation and letters of exoneration. The journal discussed the issues and agreed no action was needed - News
COPE in 2023: Update
…newsletter Read COPE Digest newsletter May 2023. New guidance has been released on "Best practices for guest-edited collections", and COPE will host a Forum discussion on the topic in July - the Forum is now open to Members to register. … - News
Vacancies on COPE Trustee Board
…if you’re thinking about volunteering then I can only recommend you do. But you’ll need to be ready to bring your expertise and time: there’s (good!) work to do, and COPE volunteers are who do it. And you can look forward to gaining insights and to growing, when you do. For me, I’ve learned that publication ethics and research integrity aren’t abstract concepts, they’re practical needs for… - News
FORUM DISCUSSION TOPIC: comments please
…such as rigorous peer reviews that can be completed in a jiffy.” [Further, there appears to be]…apparent collusions or at least the turning of a conveniently blind eye, appears most common in poorer countries.”October 30, 2017, The New York Times, Gina Kolata notes “…its increasingly clear that many academics know exactly what they’re getting into, which explains why these journals have… - Case
Contacting Research Ethics Committees with concerns over studies
…difficult to approach the employer first with these concerns. _ Open peer review policy needs to be explicit: it is open at all times, except in cases of suspected misconduct. _ Ask the authors to respond to doubts about the paper. (The editors had gone back to the ethics committees and wanted to re-review the articles. Did they have a duty of confidentiality to the author?) _ Ideally, the ethics… - Case
Request to withdraw as an author of an accepted but unpublished paper
…specific details regarding the nature of her disagreement with PD. It turns out that it involved two data points (out of 22) in a supplementary analysis. AP and PD could not agree on the value of those data points. The editor then suggested to AP and PD that they re-do the supplementary analysis, based on the 20 scores that were not in dispute; if the pattern reported originally was confirmed in… - Case
Findings of a published trial called into question by a subsequent audit of trial conduct
…The manuscript was revised and re-reviewed by this reviewer and a statistician; both were satisfied that the points had been addressed in the revision. After publication of the research article, our journal published two letters as correspondence. In one, the possibility of certain adverse events was raised, to which the authors replied that these had not been observed. The authors have…