- Case
Alleged misuse of confidential information
…being pure coincidence), two papers by authors B and C were published online in a different journal, reporting the same gene discovery, plus some functional data about the gene. Author A’s paper appeared a month later and, shortly thereafter, the editor received an email from author B, requesting that author A’s paper be retracted. It was alleged that the work reported by author A had… - Case
Can two DOIs be assigned to the same manuscript?
The Forum noted that if an article is retracted and then replaced (ie, republished as a corrected version), a journal might wish to retain the DOI of the paper. However, the DOI will only reference the retracted article and not the new version. Hence two DOIs are needed for the two different versions of the article. In this case, because one of the articles is a preprint and the other is a new… - Case
Falsification of certificates of deposit of new bacterial species in culture collections
…not fulfil the requirements of the Bacteriological Code and the editor-in-chief took the following decisions: (i) a single paper that has been published in print will be retracted and (ii) four papers that have been published ahead of print but not in print will also be retracted in print, as these papers are already listed by PubMed. A sixth paper that was still under review was withdrawn by the… - Case
Serial plagiarism by an experienced author
…Dr J had published over 20 other papers in different journals since 2005. In the light of this information, Dr J’s explanation of naivety was considered to be implausible and the decision was taken to retract the published paper. Dr J was given a final opportunity to respond and gave the same explanation for the overlap. The retraction will be published in the next issue of our journal and… - Case
Case of duplicate publication detected after 9 years
…for any perceived misconduct but stated that as the other journal was not an indexed journal, he believed that this submission was not a bar to subsequent submissions to an indexed journal. Having discussed the case with the COPE Forum and not being convinced by the author’s reply we took a decision to retract the article on the grounds of duplicate publication. The retraction notice was… - Case
Potential figure manipulation with corresponding author uncontactable
…in a previous publication from 2007. The figure manipulation does not appear to affect the scientific results or conclusions of the paper. Question for the COPE Forum• Given that the corresponding author cannot be contacted to confirm if the nature of any figure manipulation merits retraction, would it be appropriate to publish an expression of concern which will remain in… - Case
Unhelpful institution report
The Forum suggested that if the original data cannot be produced, it would be reasonable to retract the paper. No access to the primary data are grounds for retraction. The Forum asked if it would be possible for the journal to have access to the anonymised data? The Forum agreed that an expression of concern would be appropriate if the journal believes that the institution has not done… - Discussion documents
Sharing of information among editors-in-chief regarding possible misconduct
…href="https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines">Retraction Guidelines, COPE Guidelines Sharing of information among editors-in-chief regarding possible misconduct COPE Forum discussion 2013… - Case
Duplicate publication in a non-English language journal
…been sent after the case report was published in the non-English language journal. The authors were contacted separately by email, and asked to explain the discrepancy. They were warned that if no satisfactory explanation was provided, the journal would have to retract the case report. At the time of writing, they have both written to say that they will provide an explanation, but have not yet done… - Case
Concerns about the reliability of findings following re-analysis of a dataset from a published article
…the re-analysis. We asked the authors to provide a response to the results of the re-analysis and we indicated that, in the light of the concerns raised, it may be necessary to consider retraction of the article. The authors have replied and offered to collaborate with the reader in further analyses, however they suggest that the differences in the results may be due to the different methodologies… - Case
Exposing citation manipulation and fraud in the community
…the fake identities were included in the authors’ list, presumably to lend them credibility. A large proportion of submissions included numerous citations to the guest editors’ articles, included on submission or during the peer review process. The publisher intends to retract the two published articles where the fake identities were used as coauthors. The published articles reviewed by the… - Case
Withdrawal of an article
…a PDF of a letter from the authors requesting that their paper be withdrawn. The letter is signed by the authors and is not dated. The reason the authors give in the letter for wanting to withdraw are vague, stating simply that they feel they have more they need to add to their work. As Journal B has not published a formal retraction notice (and no retraction notice appears in any indexing… - Case
Extensive plagiarism
_ Journal A should retract the plagiarised article. _ The employers of the authors of paper A should be alerted that this plagiarism had occurred. Extensive plagiarism breached Journal B’s copyright over the work.… - Case
Case of figure duplication and manipulation involving two journals
…committee investigated and confirmed the figure duplication and manipulation described by author D and recommended: (1) that author D should be asked to retract the papers(2) that all authors should be banned from submitting to either journal for 1 year, as is standard practice, on the grounds that all authors take joint responsibility for the content of submitted papers(3) the third… - Case
License for using a published scale
…scale, she was contacted by a person claiming that he was representing the scale's developer and asked for a retrospective license and license fee, and threatened that if the she did not apply for a retrospective license and pay the license fee, she may need to take legal responsibility and retract the published paper. He also said that if she does not pay the fee, then the team’s lawyer would contact… - Seminars and webinars
Publication ethics, research integrity and climbing mountains
…difficulties: from growing numbers of submissions (and retractions), fake papers, artificial intelligence, paper mills, and sustainable development goals. However, Chris is optimistic about the possibilities when the community works together, as demonstrated by the 2023 United2Act summit on paper mills and its forthcoming action plan, and… - Seminars and webinars
Asia-Pacific Seminar 2013: Posters
From the Asia-Pacific Seminar 2013 Poster: Legal Issues in Retractions and Corrections [PDF, 2500KB] Poster: Lost in translation: Corrections and the Lay Media - What issues do you see with the media’s coverage of scientific… - Case
Compromised peer review (unpublished)
…best course of action with regard to both the unpublished and published manuscripts, in the absence of any response from the authors and no reliable contacts at the authors’ institution. Our current intention is to reject the manuscript under review and issue a retraction of the published article.… - Case
Duplication of data
…that they did it. The editor and publisher of the other journal involved have not responded to our emails.We would like some advice from COPE on where to take this case and whether retraction is fair.… - Case
Suspected image manipulation involving four journals
…take should all agree with the issues identified? Would retraction be called for, considering the numbers of papers involved? Should author X’s institution be contacted? Journal A feels it is important that these issues are addressed but also feels somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of having a hand in potentially destroying someone’s career and livelihood.• Journal A has not looked any…