- News
In the news: July 2020
…misconduct Stock Photo Paper Mill: Elisabeth Bik has looked into papers which contain images from the same library of about 100 photos and plots, suggesting they were all created from the same paper mill. This from the Wall Street Journal: "Internationally peer-reviewed… - News
In the news: August 2021
…href="https://www.councilscienceeditors.org/about/awards/" target="_blank">award has gone to CRediT, a high-level taxonomy that includes 14 roles that can be used to represent the roles typically played by contributors to scholarly output. A name change policy has been launched by the17 US national laboratories and 17 publishing organisations and services. "The partnership between the national laboratories, major scientific publishers,… - Case
Fraud or sloppiness in a submitted manuscript
In June 2014 we received a manuscript by four authors from a well known research institution. They described a randomized trial comparing a variation in a procedure with standard care. In total, 200 patients were randomized, 100 to each arm. As measured by an interview, patients undergoing the new procedure were statistically significantly more content than those in the control arm. This manusc… COPE webinar: Current Issues in Peer Review
…CURRENT ISSUES IN PEER REVIEW Thursday 14 September 2017, 4-5pm BST (British Summer Time) ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Register for peer…- News
In the news: October 2020
…href="https://www.transparimed.org/single-post/2020/09/14/UK-clinical-trial-registration-reporting" target="_blank">100% of all clinical trials registered and their results reported, “In future, the Health Research Authority (HRA) will itself directly register clinical trials based on data submitted during the ethics approval process, which it already centrally archives. All clinical trials will be expected to report their results within 12 months, mirroring the time horizon set out by… - Case
Ethical concerns about a study involving human subjects
A manuscript was submitted to our journal describing a study of a new drug. The manuscript had only one author who gave their affiliation as a company that we can find no record of online. It describes a study in which they appear to have developed a new drug, carried out a toxicology study in mice and then, because no adverse effects were seen, tested it on one patient and five healthy volunte… - Case
Possible self-plagiarism and/or prior publication
In October 2014 it came to our attention via one of the reviewers of a manuscript submitted to our journal that an identical article (100% identical) had been previously published on the website of the author. The submitting author had not made us aware in their submission documentation that the article had been publicly available on their website at the point of submission. Two different but r… - Case
Dispute arising from peer review of a rejected comment and published correction
…the publication of the correction, with a view to republishing the correction to clarify both the scientific record and the sequence of events. This has resulted in a great deal of time and effort being expended on several draft statements prepared by the journal over the previous 14 months. As the matter remains unresolved between the two groups, the journal’s team has elected to publish… Seminars
…presentation [PDF 1192kB] Wiley Publication Ethics Booklet—Deb Wyatt, Wiley Presentations at the 2014 COPE European Seminar (Download PDF of the seminar programme) "European perspectives on publication ethics" The 2014 European Seminar was held on Friday 14 March 2014 at the Representation of the…- News
In the news: May 2020
…preprint servers during a pandemic are being debated. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/science/coronavirus-disinformation.html A survey of users of "Research Gate", a network for researchers to share papers, shows that the work being done by participants has shifted significantly since… - Case
Coauthor fails to respond to request to confirm coauthorship
Prior to publication, our journal requires coauthors to respond to an email to confirm their authorship status and the author list. A coauthor did not respond to these emails, and when we contacted the corresponding author for help, s/he told us that his/her attempts to reach the coauthor have failed, and that s/he believed the coauthor was attempting to hold the paper hostage. According… - Event
COPE webinar: Enhancing partnerships of institutions and journals
This webinar has ended Watch the webinar recording which includes presentations by the speakers and the question and answer session. - Flowcharts
All Flowcharts
…="https://publicationethics.org/resources/translated-resources/japanese-all-flowcharts">Japanese | Persian | Polish | Spanish | Turkish… 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
Standards in Authorship webinar summary
…(Consortia Advancing Standards in Research Administration Information) initiative that consolidates this drive further with a 14-term taxonomy of ‘contributorship roles’ for those involved in research. Image: Jorge Cham Critically, the information on roles is embedded in the article’s metadata and can be linked to an author’s individual ORCID. Of the webinar attendees, 58% were already… - News
In the news: May 2021
Each month, COPE Council members find and share publication ethics news. This month the news includes articles on peer review, preprints, open access, and more. Authorship This paper published in the Indian Journal of Gastroenterology and aimed at educating postgraduate scientists… - News
In the news: November 2020
…-massive-database-retracted-papers-reveals-about-science-publishing-s-death-penalty" target="_blank">Notable findings include: the rate of increase of retractions has slowed; the continued increase seems to reflect improved oversight at a growing number of journals; more editors should take this seriously; about 1/4 of 10,500 retractions analysed were authored by a small number of individuals, usually the result of deliberate misconduct; retraction rates differ by country; many retractions are due… Terms and conditions
…membership Members shall have a right to cancel their membership within 14 days of receipt of their acceptance letter and receive a full refund (if applicable). For further information, please contact COPE. Back to top Termination of membership A member…- Seminars and webinars
Inclusive language: policing or progressive?
…recommendations The diversity and innovation paradox PNAS research article Finding pathways to equity recommendation from Society Publishers' Coalition … - Case
Paper submitted for publication without consent or knowledge of co-authors
…received although they were copied in on the correspondence. On 14 December 2012, the publisher contacted CA directly, asking him for his point of view. CA replied on 17 December 2012. From his reply it was not clear whether he completely understood the situation. He stated that he had asked co-author A for permission to submit the article but “had no answer for one year”. He states that the…