- Case
Seven plagiarized manuscripts in one month by the same corresponding author
Advice on this case is from a small number of COPE Council Members. Most cases on the COPE website are presented to the COPE Forum where advice is offered by a wider group of COPE Members and COPE Council Members. Advice on individual cases is not formal COPE guidance. Council would caution that the editor has an obligation… - News
Comments please: framework for editors when requesting patient consent for publication in small cohort studies
…topic of consent for publishing case reports see COPE's recently released document Journals's best practices for ensuring consent for publishing medical case reports. … - Case
Duplicate submission or self plagiarism. Is the author to blame?
Advice on this case is from a small number of COPE Council Members. Most cases on the COPE website are presented to the COPE Forum where advice is offered by a wider group of COPE Members and COPE Council Members. Advice on individual cases is not formal COPE guidance. This would appear to be a case of duplicate submission,… - Case
Request for a retraction of a retraction
…remain on the drug being tested (perhaps treatment should be limited anyway, perhaps the drug is not licensed or available). The retracted paper showed few losses over 12–65 months of follow-up: 67 were in the experimental group, 65 completed; 68 were controls, 65 completed. Our journal recognises that nothing in this paragraph proves misconduct. We do not know why the author of the retracted… - Case
Unusually frequent submission of articles by a single author
A sixth year medical student, with expected year of graduation of 2013 (Mr X), submitted 29 original articles and 17 letters to the editor in the period February 2012 to October 2012 to our journal. This amounted to an average of five submissions per month. Mr X is an author and corresponding author in every article. Of these, he is the first author of eight original research articles and 12… - Case
Critical comment and conflict of interest
Advice on this case is from a small number of COPE Council Members. Most cases on the COPE website are presented to the COPE Forum where advice is offered by a wider group of COPE Members and COPE Council Members. Advice on individual cases is not formal COPE guidance. The role of the editor/publish is to edit and publish… - Case
Allegation of authorship misconduct
…the article in the present journal had any insight into or knowledge of it. There are some potential concerns here about breach of confidentiality in the processes at Journal X, but this would be for them to investigate further. (e.g., following - Case
Dispute over submitted comment and the right to be forgotten
Advice on this case is from a small number of COPE Council Members. Most cases on the COPE website are presented to the COPE Forum where advice is offered by a wider group of COPE Members and COPE Council Members. Advice on individual cases is not formal COPE guidance. Council’s understanding is that the Right to be… - Case
Inconclusive institutional investigation into authorship dispute
…Asking each author to specify their contribution. CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) could be useful here. Competition for last author place is increasing in some geographic areas and some disciplines. Changing authorship order or removing an author without adequate institutional investigation is not advisable, however, the correction… - Case
Should stockholders of a pharmaceutical industry declare conflicts of interest in a research paper?
Advice on this case is from a small number of COPE Council Members. Most cases on the COPE website are presented to the COPE Forum where advice is offered by a wider group of COPE Members and COPE Council Members. Advice on individual cases is not formal COPE guidance. Generally, authors need to declare conflicts of interest… - Forum discussion topics
Coordinating multi-journal complaints
…Related resources Dealing with concerns about the integrity of published research COPE discussion document Your comments Anyone (members and non-members) can comment on this discussion. Comments are reviewed and, on approval, added below.… - Case
Permission to publish a case report
Advice on this case is from a small number of COPE Council Members. Most cases on the COPE website are presented to the COPE Forum where advice is offered by a wider group of COPE Members and COPE Council Members. Advice on individual cases is not formal COPE guidance. The role of the Editor (and COPE) is to protect the… - Case
Concerns over research by an author in numerous, separate publications
Following on from the COPE Forum, I took on COPE’s advice and contacted the other editors that were listed at the end of the anonymous email that our editor received. There were 12 other editors and journals listed in this email, from a wide range of publishing houses. I have received five responses so far. One was apparently not aware of the email ever being sent. One asked a colleague to… - Case
Possible authorship conflict over an article published ahead of print
Advice on this case is from a small number of COPE Council Members. Most cases on the COPE website are presented to the COPE Forum where advice is offered by a wider group of COPE Members and COPE Council Members. Advice on individual cases is not formal COPE guidance. At the very least, Author 1 should clarify the role of… - Case
Withdrawal of acceptance based on potentially unconsented data
Advice on this case is from a small number of COPE Council Members. Most cases on the COPE website are presented to the COPE Forum where advice is offered by a wider group of COPE Members and COPE Council Members. Advice on individual cases is not formal COPE guidance. The journal’s decision to withdraw the acceptance of… - Case
Call for retraction of a commentary
Advice on this case is from a small number of COPE Council Members. Most cases on the COPE website are presented to the COPE Forum where advice is offered by a wider group of COPE Members and COPE Council Members. Advice on individual cases is not formal COPE guidance. Council believe that the editor-in-chief and publisher… - Forum discussion topics
Peer review models
…fraud are improving (for example, those being developed by the STM Integrity Hub), but too much information sharing can lead to paper mills changing their practices. Your comments You must be logged in to leave a comment on the COPE website. If you are not a member of COPE you can create a guest account. - Case
Reader concerns about ethics approval and consent from a vulnerable population
Advice on this case is from a small number of COPE Council Members. Most cases on the COPE website are presented to the COPE Forum where advice is offered by a wider group of COPE Members and COPE Council Members. Advice on individual cases is not formal COPE guidance. The case is quite challenging and goes more into…