- Case
Authorship dispute
…editor was then separately contacted by the senior author of the paper saying that the journal should make up its own mind and he does not mind whatever the editor decides. The editor has written back saying that he would like to await the investigation’s result. In the meantime, the head of the department, who previously said that he was leading this investigation, has written to the editor… - News
In the news: January 2021
…editors to alter a report. A working group of the STM Association led by Joris van Rossum released a draft of a taxonomy for peer review aimed at standardising definitions and terminology with the intention of building an evidence base… - Case
Randomisation and ethics of pilot trials
After discussion of this case in 2008, our worries about the paper grew. We could not get direct answers from the author. However, we did find that the data in one of their tables which showed subgroups could not be transformed back to match their table of baseline data, and that the randomisation ratio in the subgroups in that table was highly statistically unlikely to have been obtained by… - Case
Request to remove author from submitted manuscript due to academic misconduct
…had been produced during a period of collaboration which has now ended. This may satisfy co-authors who are worried about being tainted by the behavioural misconduct. However, if this is felt to be beyond the responsibility of the publisher, the author/s could be encouraged to use tools at their own disposal, such as services which allow them to attach information to a DOI, or to use a commenting… FORUM DISCUSSION TOPIC: Issues related to papers submitted to “discussion” journals
…from (re-)submission for fully peer-reviewed publication. We expect that in the long run most if not all scientific journals will adopt this policy. Normally, even very good manuscripts can be further improved by revision. In the unlikely event that a very good manuscript cannot achieve publication in XXX, a revised and further improved version is very likely to achieve publication in an alternative…- Case
Possible self-plagiarism and/or prior publication
…guarantee acceptance of the resubmitted manuscript, which would be subject to further review by the same reviewers as previously. To date the journal has not received a reworked new version of the manuscript.… - Case
Retrospective registration, outcome switching and ethical approval
The Senior Editorial Committee reviewed the advice from the COPE Forum and agreed with the suggested actions. The authors have drafted a Corrigendum, and this is currently undergoing review and revision by a board member with expertise in the field. Members of the editorial board are currently drafting an editorial for publication alongside the Corrigendum. An Expression of Concern will be… - Seminars and webinars
Seminar 2021: How do publication ethics practices for journals apply to book publishing?
…types of issues facing different publication formats. The proportion of queries or complaints differ, in terms of discipline, between books and journals. In books the highest proportion are in the applied sciences followed by humanities, medicine and life sciences, whereas for journals it is predominantly medicine and life sciences. Authorship, data (errors and fabrication), and plagiarism are the… - Case
Managing an editor’s undisclosed conflict of interest in a published article
…appropriate for the note to come from the publisher, rather than the editor, or the society, if the journal is owned by a society. The Forum advised that the journal might want to educate editors and editorial office staff on recusing themselves if they have a conflict in a similar situation in the future.… New UK Panel for Research Integrity
…stakeholders. The board chair will be an independent appointment. The position is likely to be filled by someone who is not affiliated to either sector, and probably with a legal background. There will be a small team, with two main posts of a project director and a project officer. These will be open appointments. Universities UK is the preferred operational base, using…Outcomes of editors' attempts to investigate research misconduct
…for more than a year, and many of them went back over decades when they started to unravel. Good record keeping is therefore absolutely essential. In some instances, the case just disappeared because the journal could not keep up with the paperwork. Redundant publication Analysis by theme shows that redundant publication is the most common…- News
In the news: December 2020
…href="http://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/30/science/diversity-science-journals.html" target="_blank">diversity in scientific publishing. During 2020, increasing calls for diversity among authors, editorial boards, and journal leadership have gained momentum. Wu reports that few of the publishers she contacted for her story collected demographic data on authors and that two that did so, cautioned that the data were unreliable due to low response rate by authors.… Member Insight
…COPE Members to watch again. COPE and STM are embarking on a research project to understand more about paper mills. Would you like COPE Members to contribute to the research with your personal or professional experience of the problem? Let us know by filling in the website form. The latest in our series of…- News
Case Discussion: Ethics of non-active management of a control group
…institutions and journals in research integrity cases.” (https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2018.1.3) In the latter case, COPE states with respect to journals, that journals should “inform institutions if they suspect misconduct by their researchers, and provide evidence to support these concerns.”… - Forum discussion topics
Dealing with complaints about the integrity of published research
…made on social media? Some journals have general communication policies that can apply to resolving matters in a public forum by means of a crisis communication plan, but nothing more specific. Some publishers acknowledge that they do not specifically search for concerns raised on social media, but when publication ethics concerns come to their attention, they acknowledge the concern and… - Seminars and webinars
Webinar 2020: Understanding text recycling
…specific technical phrasings in order to not misrepresent a study, I would expect most editors would want a concise summary of those methods written in the language most easily understood by the target audience for the review. Depending on the outlet, that audience may or may not be the same as the audience for the original article. For example, the article might have been written for an audience of…