- Case
Nuisance author
…a lawyer. A formal, legal note should be sent to the author (by email if this is the only known means of contact). Another practical suggestion was to contact Yahoo (as all of the author’s accounts are @yahoo.fr, @yahoo.in or @yahoo.cn) as they take such abuse issues very seriously and may investigate.… - Case
Duplicate publication in possibly four papers
The Forum noted that publication of a translation of a paper is permissible if the process is transparent and the original paper is cited in the translation. In this case, the authors failed to inform the editor of the previous versions of papers 1 and 2, and checked the box on the submission form saying the papers had not been published previously. One option suggested by the Forum was to… - Case
Satire in scholarly publishing
The Forum noted that it is up to individual editors or publishers to decide what they publish, and if publishing these types of articles is a valuable use of their page budget. Editors should not be told by other editors or journals what they can and cannot include in their journal. Hence it is not reasonable for the other journal editor to request retraction of the satirical article. There… - Case
Publishing complications and patient safety
…which is attended by a small audience of around 120 doctors at which participants present their complication cases. At this meeting, many basic complications are discussed, which can be related to lack of education, lack of knowledge of materials, lack of knowledge about patient disease, or insufficient training, some of which have devastating outcomes. Many of these complications are avoidable. - Seminars and webinars
Seminar 2021: Keynote address
…described. Universities and publishers must establish a working, strategic two-way conversation and relationship to facilitate mutual success in a highly competitive international context. This will then evolve into a recognition of some shared and mutual interests and goals, and a commitment to work together. The presentations will be followed by a Q&A. - Case
Deceased author and author delaying publication
…proofs, perhaps a surviving partner or someone affiliated with the deceased author’s estate could be involved. The head of a department or dean of the college might be able to help with these connections. Procedures vary by journal in terms of copyright forms too. For most journals, usually only the corresponding author is asked to sign a copyright form, on behalf of the other authors. If… - Case
Temporary exception to double anonymised review policy
…a notification which stated that a technical error had resulted in part of the review process being single-anonymous rather than double-anonymous. All authors and reviewers agreed to proceed and no conflicts of interest were reported by the reviewers concerned. Authors and reviewers seemed to appreciate the journal’s transparency in this process.… - Case
Ukrainian authors request retraction of article in Russian conference proceedings
A journal has been contacted by a group of authors from Ukraine who wish to retract their article because of acute ethical issues in relation to the war with Russia. The authors are employees of a research institute in Ukraine. When preparing their article they were not fully informed about the country of the organisers of the conference. They are concerned that participation in a Russian… - Forum discussion topics
Bias in peer review
…in response to the kinds of diversity seen as being important in peer review. Two of the fifteen new reply options to this question in the 2021 survey also garnered significant responses, with 67% of respondents indicating that Career Level was important and 63% indicating that Geographic Diversity was important. The importance of Expertise Areas/Specialities decreased by 27% (from 88%… Resources and further reading
…-integrity-in-research">https://www.nap.edu/catalog/21896/fostering-integrity-in-research] Das KK, Vallabha T, Ray J, Murthy P S N. Conflict of Interest - Serious Issue on Publication Ethics for Indian Medical Journals. J Nepal Med Assoc 2013;52(190):205-12. A five part publication ethics video series by Charon Pierson PhD, RN, GNP, FAANP (COPE Council…Foreword, COPE Report 2005
…mistakes. COPE’s Code of Conduct for Editors, launched at the end of 2004, recognised the need to raise the standards of editorial behaviour by setting out broad principles of good conduct. These include: publishing corrections and apologies where necessary retracting fraudulent or erroneous articles publishing cogent criticisms…- News
Core Practices
…way we describe them will change over time. For example, data publishing is evolving rapidly and it’s certain to be reflected in our guidance. What we expect from our members COPE still expects that high standards are met by our members and the communities we serve. Therefore, in parallel with the launch of the core practices, we have also made changes to our Complaints subcommittee,… - Case
Duplicate publication?
…the other in men. Finally, although the main point of the articles was measuring concentration of a substance in healthy subjects and patients, there was not a single value of the measurement. The only numbers provided in the tables were the results of the Mann–Whitney statistical test. Surprised by such data presentation, especially because one of the journals was a respected journal from… - Case
Authorship dispute and possible unreported protocol amendment
…manuscript although his contribution to the study has been acknowledged in it.• The data collected up to 2008 were unblinded for the purpose of then data analysis before the full data up to 2011 were fully analysed.• There is a dispute as to whether some subjects at the time of the assessment of the primary outcome measure should be included in the data analysis. Steps taken by the… - Case
Retraction or correction?
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 case involves a published manuscript that has been… - Case
Authorship issues from disbanded consortium
…resolved and hence the criticism of the journal for this is unfair. The Forum noted the importance of the institution and that the editor might still consider contacting them, even if the authors say they will not abide by the findings. The institution can also play their part in terms of educating the three junior researchers. It would be best if the institution, rather than the journal, made the… - Case
Excessive self-citation in a book chapter
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. Self-citation is a difficult problem to manage. It is… - Case
Suspicion that signed informed consent forms are forged
…href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36044262/">recent review by PubMed on publishing photographs in medical journals which highlights some of the problems with this, and Sections 4.2.11 and 5.8.3 of the AMA Manual of Style). Overall, however, it seems more appropriate to reject the paper due to concerns about the validity of the consent forms and to inform the authors of the reason… - News
Guest editorial: Tackling paper mills
…href="https://thebiochemistblog.com/2021/05/06/papermills-in-bioscience-reports/">targeted, for some time, by a ‘paper mill’. We were fortunate that the anonymous reader was reachable, and that they were willing to discuss with us and elaborate on how they had identified some of the issues in the figures, most commonly Western blots, microscopy images, and flow cytometry graphs. In addition to learning how to identify potential paper mill articles and issues in figures as… - Case
Academic freedom
…approached the civil service and disclosed the authors’ desire to submit the manuscript to the journal. The proposed journal is not based in the country that the authors are from. The draft manuscript was provided to the civil service. In the draft manuscript the student is identified by name and as affiliated with the university. The student’s employment with the civil service is not disclosed in the…