- News
Facilitation & integrity: name changes
…and raised the matter to COPE. As per its remit, the Facilitation and Integrity subcommittee approached the journal for comments. The journal had indicated to the author that the name was correct at the time of publication, and they did not usually make corrections to the record for name changes happening later. The journal also indicated that they had consulted COPE in relation to the… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: July 2021
…the possible conflicts of interests that could exist and the appropriate questions to ask before deciding if it is appropriate for any individual to be a member of more than one editorial board at the same time. We last heard from Cary Moskovitz in March when he updated us on the progress on the Text Recycling Research Project. This month the group has released Cookie policy
…The COPE cookie policy relates to your use of the COPE website at https://publicationethics.org Page contents –– What are cookies? –– Can I disable cookies? –– More about cookies –– Cookies on the COPE…- Case
An accusation of racism
…country to be able to afford the gold standard test. They asked an associate editor, an acknowledged authority in this area, to look at the paper and comment on its suitability for publication. S/he recommended outright rejection, a decision with which the editors agreed. Shortly afterwards the author wrote to refute the decision, claiming that the study was one of the few from that particular region… - Case
“Medical research” using data in the public domain
…also questioned the existence of the “website in the public domain” as it could not be accessed. The author replied that at the time of data collection the website was viable, and the result of each match was posted publically. Since then the site has changed and these data are no longer posted on the website, likely because they are outdated. However, similar data are available from another… - Case
Possible breach of confidentiality by a reviewer
One of the figures in an article under review was said by the authors to appear in a presentation given at a conference while the paper was still under review and from this identified the reviewer and accused this person of abusing their position. We could not confirm to the authors that they had correctly identified the reviewer. The authors contacted the reviewer directly and also contacted… - Case
Possible case of fraud
The paper was rejected and the editor decided not to try to initiate an institutional investigation owing to insufficient evidence of wrongdoing. Later the editor heard from the refereeing “whistleblower” (who had written to the editor to allege “possible fraud”) that the same paper had been accepted at another journal, and that he had been invited to write an editorial. A couple of weeks ago,… - Case
Ethical dilemma involving religious beliefs
…wish to contribute. This would make the drawing up of contracts difficult and might mean the editors have to find replacement authors for this chapter at the very last minute. (3) Allow the authors to include a comment in their chapter that they do not approve of some of the content of the book on religious grounds. However, this would be an unusual comment in the context of this chapter and… - Case
Multiple publication of research
…article went on to appear in Journal B in January 2004. This paper acknowledges the conference it was given at. • In June 2003, the lead author gave another conference paper based on their PhD research which was subsequently published in Journal C in December 2003. The copyright assignment form for this article was signed in September 2003. • In January 2006, another paper was published in… - Case
Duplicate submission
…submission. We subsequently emailed the authors of the paper asking for an explanation, especially considering they had confirmed at the time of submission that their manuscript was not under consideration in any other journal. The authors withdrew their paper from the second journal and responded to us by saying that they were very sorry for their “low-level error” in submission and apologised for the… - Case
Identifying patient information published in a figure
…already stated that no identifying patient information should be included. At all stages following submission (journal office review of initial submission, publisher production of processed manuscript, copyeditor review, and author review of proof), the patient’s name was not noticed. Within 2 days of the reader’s email, the publisher had replaced the figure with a version that did not include… - Case
Publishing a letter concerning a paper published in another journal many years ago
…considering letters to the editor. The authors of the letter have therefore written to Journal X in the hope they can get some response and make their concerns known to their readers. The editors of Journal X are keen to publish this letter and we have had legal advice which stated that it is important enough to warrant publication. The letter has been reviewed by at least five expert referees… - Case
Data integrity issues
…president of academic concerns at the institution that the editor might contact? For the future, the Forum suggested that the journal might want to update their author guidelines with explicit instructions around record keeping and data retention policies, and how long they are expected to retain their data.… - Case
Author accused of sexual harassment
…have moved institution or left academia, but this leaves any co-authors at risk of discrimination by association. Individuals who have been cleared of charges may suffer similarly, and it is difficult to handle submissions which are made later: when should any sanctions end? Should different actions be taken if an individual has been convicted as opposed to accused of a misdemeanour of this nature?… - Seminars and webinars
Caste and publishing: an ethics gap?
In this talk, Gaurev Pathania, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (Eastern Mennonite University), speaks about the often overlooked category of caste as a global form of discrimination. Anubhav Pradhan, COPE Council Member, hosts this talk and… - Case
Request for retraction due to alleged ethical misconduct in a grant application
…does not consider that the issue has any effect on the results of the published manuscript, and it is not at risk of endangering anyone utilising the results, negating the need for urgent retraction by the journal. The journal is also concerned about retracting an article that has multiple authors from multiple international institutions. Questions for the Forum What… - Case
Retracting a 'Just Accepted' article
…with it. Several of the papers were already published at the time the fraud was discovered and are likely to be retracted, although this decision hasn’t yet been made by our Ethics Committee. Several of the other papers were posted in the publisher’s Digital Library as “Just Accepted” papers, which is a relatively new feature to make accepted, but not yet published versions available to the… COPE Forum
…Publication ethics cases at the COPE Forum COPE members bring specific publication ethics issues to the Forum for discussion and advice. The cases are available to read, with advice given and follow up comments from the Member who submits the case. The next COPE Forum for COPE members will be June 2024.- Forum discussion topics
What does peer review mean in the arts, humanities and social sciences?
June 2020 Are there differences in gender and diversity issues in arts, humanities, and social sciences (AHSS) in peer review from other disciplines? Participants discussed this topic at the COPE Forum, June 2020. Language, quality, diversity and inclusivity in AHSS In a study by COPE in collaboration with Taylor & Francis… - Forum discussion topics
Ethical aspects of conference proceedings
…publishing. Following COPE's mission, ethical aspects of conference proceedings will be the focus of the discussion. What are we looking at when we talk about conference proceedings? Conference proceedings cover a range of publication types, some of which are treated differently than book and journal publications, and others the same. Conference proceedings can be journals, special issues of…