COPE Privacy notice
…href="#social">Social media Your rights Changes to this notice Who we are COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics, “our”, “us”, “we”) is registered as a charitable company limited by guarantee in the UK and was set up in 2007. It is also a registered charity (1123023). COPE’s principal Objects are "to…- Case
Compromised peer review (unpublished)
…responded. We have attempted to find a contact at the authors’ institution. It has proved difficult to identify a research ethics committee, any individual senior member of the university or contacts for the university administration. During other searches, a vice principal of the university was identified but was found to be the senior author on both manuscripts. We are now seeking guidance on the… - Case
Reviewer requests to be added as an author after publication
…wished. The Forum questioned the behaviour of the reviewer. Has the editor asked the reviewer why he did not recuse himself from reviewing the paper? The reviewer does not seem to have conducted himself in an ethical manner. An alternative suggestion was for the editor to consider whether or not he would have published the paper based on the two reviews of the original paper (excluding the… - Case
Lead author of a research paper disagrees with content of a linked editorial
We discussed the matter with our internal ethics committee who were supportive of the journal’s approach to linked editorials—specifically, they agreed that the journal should not share them before publication. We have now started writing to the authors of papers scheduled for press release, explaining why we do not share, and asking them not to contact editorialists directly. Our press… - Case
Using the name of a scientific society inappropriately
A journal published an article about clinical recommendations for a condition that supposedly was the result of a consensus between two scientific societies of different medical specialties. The article underwent peer review and no problems were identified at that stage. However, about one month after publication the journal was contacted by one of the scientific societies raising concerns that… - Case
Disputed change in authorship
A case control study was submitted to a journal. It was subjected to the usual peer review processes. After the required revisions, the article was accepted for publication. After acceptance, the journal received a letter from the corresponding author (author A) with a request to add the name of a new author (author B). The journal declined, stating that it would be unethical. The… - Case
Rescind a decision post-acceptance prior to publication
…dataset or research ethics are questionable because of a retraction elsewhere involving the same study, or there has been duplicate or salami publishing. If the authors did not declare that their other article was under investigation this would be a failure to disclose information that ‘would have unduly affected interpretations of the work or recommendations by editors and peer reviewers,’ which is… - Case
Complaint over protocol used in special issue
…in fact fatally undermine the conclusions presented then this would merit a retraction instead. Finally, the editor could consider writing an editorial piece to go alongside any Expression of Concern or Retraction notice to explain the ethical difficulties and risks behind their decision. Another approach is to consider conflicting views to be a normal part of scholarship, and one which is… - Translated resources
Proceso de revisión por pares comprometido en artículos publicados: caso
…Compromised peer review system in published papers Related resources Guias eticas para revisores pares - Translated resources
El autor de un artículo rechazado nombra y critica de forma pública al revisor por pares: caso
…COPE puede ser útil en este campo. Basado en el caso 16-12 Author of rejected paper publicly names and criticises peer reviewer Related resources - News
In the news: October 2018 Digest
…Journal Management This month’s topic is “journal management” and on first blush, it isn’t obvious how the concept of “ethics” applies to this topic. I thought of things like selection and implementation of a manuscript manager, paying bills, identifying reviewers, etc. But when I got past my concrete thinking it’s clear journals must be managed based on fundamental ethical… - News
New COPE members Jan-March 2019
We are delighted to welcome journals and publishers who became members between January and March 2019. The new members have been assessed against criteria outlined in the Principles of Transparency and signing up to COPE shows that they intend to follow the highest standards of publication ethics and to apply COPE principles of publication… - News
In the news: December Digest
…on the past year and plans for the future. We list the top 5 cases visited on our website in 2019 which deal with issues of plagiarism, authorship, predatory publishing and ethical oversight, and we have four new cases to share with you as discussed by #C0PEMembers at the latest forum. Members at the forum began a discussion on 'Artificial Intelligence in decision making' which we summarise and… Facilitation and Integrity FAQ
…subcommittee handles a wide range of publication ethics concerns brought to the attention of COPE. Concerns may be related to any of the areas covered under the COPE Core Practices, resembling the variety of topics covered in case…- Forum discussion topics
Bias in peer review
…information for peer reviewers: “Reviewers must give unbiased consideration to each manuscript submitted. They should judge each on its merits, without regard to race, religion, nationality, sex, seniority, or institutional affiliation of the author(s). … Rooting your review in… Outcomes of editors' attempts to investigate research misconduct
Liz Wager, Publications Consultant for Sideview and member of COPE Education Sub-Committee and BMJ Ethics Committee When editors do decide to take action in cases of suspected research misconduct, just how successful are they? In a bid to find out, I looked at those cases published in the COPE reports (1998-2003) where editors…Code of conduct for COPE meetings and events
…COPE is committed to providing a safe, inclusive, productive, and welcoming environment for all participants. COPE seminars, webinars, workshops, Forum, and other related events provide support, guidance, education, and discussion of topics related to publication ethics. COPE is committed to providing a safe, inclusive, productive, and welcoming environment…- News
In the news: September 2021
Each month, COPE Council members find and share publication ethics news. This month the news includes articles on diversity, equity and inclusion, peer review, and predatory publishing. Diversity, equity and inclusion C4DISC, The Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communication, published the Antiracism Toolkit for Organizations which was written by… - Case
Confidentiality and consent in case reports
We would appreciate COPE Forum’s advice with regard to consent and confidentiality in the publication of case histories. Our journal is published three times a year and has a relatively small circulation but also goes to some postgraduate medical libraries, so is potentially available to a much wider audience. Our subscribers are doctors working with patients presenting with sexua… - Case
Falsification of certificates of deposit of new bacterial species in culture collections
The process of naming and describing novel species of bacteria is governed by the Bacteriological Code. As part of this process, authors are required to deposit the type strain of the novel species in at least two culture collections located in different countries, and they are also required to provide documentary evidence that the strains have been so deposited and that the deposited strains a…