- Seminars and webinars
AsiaPacific Seminar 2011: Publication ethics as a manifestation of professional ethics
…Download presentation: Publication ethics as a manifestation of professional ethics (PDF, 1155KB)… - Case
Retraction or correction?
…href="https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts/plagiarism-published-article"> the COPE flowchart for suspected plagiarism in a published article. It would seem that the editors find the response from the authors insufficient and unsatisfactory, and it is clear from the flowchart what the next recommended steps should be. If the editor believes that the omission was not intentional, the authors could be allowed to fix the oversight. The editor could let… - Case
No ethics committee approval or informed consent
… If the data came from an audit/questionnaire/survey neither consent nor ethics committee approval would have been required. From the synopsis of this case, however, the patients did appear to have actively participated. The medical director of the hospital should also be informed. Inform the authors that the hospital’s chief executive has been contacted.… - Case
Consideration of publishing raw data
…the authors to go back and obtain ethics approval to publish raw data? If so, does the author have to go back to the original ethics committee? · Also, does one allow the authors to publish only “relevant” data or does one require all of the data generated from the trial to be published?… - Case
WAME case
This case was posted on the WAME (World Association of Medical Editors) list-serv and the editor (from India) asked whether COPE could provide guidance. An author (who happens to also be a journal editor) submitted a manuscript to a journal listed in one of the major medical databases. Having heard nothing for several months he tried to contact the editor to discover what was happening.… - Case
Misuse of post-publication literature evaluation service
…together with the conflict of interest noted, there can be no argument. The committee felt that editors shouldn’t be excluded from evaluating articles in their own journals, especially in the case of highly specialist fields, but the evaluator must declare a conflict of interest. One solution would be to obtain two separate evaluations, but again a conflict of interest must be declared. It was suggested… - Case
Criteria to determine whether an author’s response to concerns about data validity is satisfactory
…establish whether they can be valid? If it is not the role of journals and journal editors to perform full investigations into data validity and possible misconduct, how can a journal know whether to refer a matter to an institution? … - Case
Editor adding reference to an author's work
Several years ago Author A was asked by Editor B to contribute an essay to a publication. The book took a long time to complete and underwent many modifications. When the book was published Author A noticed that several edits had been made to the text without Author A being informed and which Author A did not approve. The most notable edit is an added reference to a piece of text. The added… - Event
Next COPE Forum: 3 June 2013
The next COPE Forum will be on Monday 3 June. This will held in the Council Chamber, The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), 5-11 Theobalds Road, London WC1X 8SH… - Event
Peer review workshop
COPE members: join us for an online workshop during Peer Review Week. We will be working through peer review cases submitted by members, share in the discussion and suggest what the editor(s) should do next.… - Case
Duplicate submission to two journals and previous duplicate publication uncovered
…publication. The authors replied, apologising for the error, which had been due to “hurry and inattentiveness, ” adding: “that the predicament is entirely due to circumstances beyond our intention. ” They requested that the paper be withdrawn. An explanation for the previous episode of duplicate submission was not given, although they said that they had sent a detailed letter to the editors of both journals,… - Case
Seeking retrospective ethics approval
…sought ethics approval from their institutional committee. The committee appears to have granted approval with the proviso that a notice be placed on the website indicating that the material from the questionnaires was to be employed in research, not in supporting the activities promoted by the website, as first indicated. The notice was to remain up for 3 weeks so that any of the participants could… - Case
Anonymity versus author transparency
An editor invited an author to submit a paper to his journal. Colleagues of the author suggested “unsubmission” because it could be damaging to the author’s career. The editor contacted the publisher and requested that the paper be withdrawn. The editor then contacted the author asking if he would consider publishing the paper anonymously (ie, with no identifying names). The editor did not… - Case
Plagiarism of a PhD thesis
…to cite it in the reference list. The instructions for authors state that: "The list of references should only include works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works should only be mentioned in the text." There are many opinions/views/cases available on different websites. But the prevailing view seems… - Case
Article published at two journals after withdrawal from first journal
…there must be sympathy with Journal A for the waste of editorial and reviewer resources, as per previous COPE cases it is the authors’ prerogative to withdraw their article at any stage before publication. Therefore, in this instance Journal B does not consider the authors to have breached publication ethics with duplicate submission. Instead, Journal B considers Journal A to be at fault for… - Flowcharts
Peer review manipulation suspected during the peer review process
…class="resource-download-inline__container"> Flowchart Peer review manipulation suspected during the peer review process PDF 107 KB… - Flowcharts
Peer review manipulation suspected after publication
…class="resource-download-inline__type"> Flowchart Peer review manipulation suspected after publication PDF 111 KB - News
In the news: September 2018 Digest
…-careful-what-we-wish-for/" target="_blank">https://thebibliomagician.wordpress.com/2018/08/21/measuring-openness-should-we-be-careful-what-we-wish-for/ - Case
Author dispute over need for retraction
The authors of a paper are in disagreement over whether the paper should be retracted. One group of authors (group 1) wishes to publish a correction, and another group (group 2) feel that is inadequate, and the paper should be retracted. Group 2 is concerned that one of the authors, author X, in group 1 is guilty of scientific misconduct. The remaining group 1 authors do not support this… - Case
Paper B plagiarised paper A: what to do if a journal does not respond?
…the absence of any reaction from the author/editor-in-chief/publisher of paper B?• Can this expression of concern/note be published based only on the assessment of the editor-in-chief of journal A? …