- News
Letter from the COPE Chair: November 2020
…finally, our peer review workshop will be held on Thursday 19 November, at the earlier time of 9.00am GMT (5.00pm AWST, 2.30pm IST) to enable a wider global range of our members to add their insights and experiences to the event. This workshop is now full. Look out for more COPE workshops in 2021. Wishing you all… - Case
Dispute arising from peer review of a rejected comment and published correction
In 2016, group A published manuscript X in our journal. In early 2017, group B submitted a comment critical of the published manuscript. Following peer review, in accordance with the journal’s then active policy, the comment was rejected from further consideration. The policy allowed for the author of the original article to be one of the peer reviewers of the comment. The lead author of… - Case
Appropriate scope of review for retractions
An institutional review recommended retraction of certain works by a highly prolific and influential author who has since died. The institutional review focused on a relatively small portion of this author’s work. The institution recommended retraction based on deeming the articles unsafe and identifying several concerns, including that the articles' conclusions were implausible. As a pu… - News
In the news: February Digest
…2uejbs1hsqt31-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/RHSPlanSInterimJan19.pdf" target="_blank">https://5hm1h4aktue2uejbs1hsqt31-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/RHSPlanSInterimJan19.pdf Peer review BMC Biology has a policy of allowing authors of rejected papers to have their peer review results to submit to another journal. Sounds good in principle, per… - News
Letter from COPE: June 2020
…together support and guidance that has been brought to our attention during the crisis. It’s worth repeating COPE Chair Deborah Poff's statement in our April - Case
Simultaneous publication
About a month after our journal (Journal A) published a paper (Paper X), the journal received emails from readers that Paper X was very similar to a paper (Paper Y) that had just been published by another journal (Journal B). Some of these emails were sent to both journal offices. Paper X was submitted to Journal A a few days before Paper Y was submitted to Journal B and Paper X wa… - Case
Using the name of a scientific society inappropriately
A journal published an article about clinical recommendations for a condition that supposedly was the result of a consensus between two scientific societies of different medical specialties. The article underwent peer review and no problems were identified at that stage. However, about one month after publication the journal was contacted by one of the scientific societies raising concerns that… - Case
Authorship issue related to misleading action of one author
Our journal received a manuscript which was a report of an evaluation and enhancement of an online clinical decision support system (CDS) for a specific population at risk of a disease. The online CDS had been developed by a national agency with a mission to support health promotion and disease prevention activities. Evaluation of the CDS was supported through contracts and sub-contracts. The f… - Case
Disputed change in authorship
A case control study was submitted to a journal. It was subjected to the usual peer review processes. After the required revisions, the article was accepted for publication. After acceptance, the journal received a letter from the corresponding author (author A) with a request to add the name of a new author (author B). The journal declined, stating that it would be unethical. The… New UK Panel for Research Integrity
…area of greatest need first, expanding to others if we can clearly demonstrate the usefulness of such a move. Of the 66 allegations reported, a prima facie case was established after a stage I investigation in 35 cases, and in 19 cases, the allegations were upheld in full. Contact was made with the Department of Health at an early stage. It was clear that they…- News
In the news: October Digest
…disciplines were assessed using machine-assistance techniques to assess for inclusion of information relating to 19 topics on transparency in reporting and research integrity. The results showed that only Conflicts of Interests and Peer Review Type of the 19 were mentioned in over 1/2 of the instructions for authors. Plagiarism was mentioned in 46%. The other 16 topics (Such as data sharing, image… - News
In the news: December Digest
…policies, including the Make Data Count Project provides some practical information as well as arguments for a robust data sharing practice. http://europeanscienceediting.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/ESEAug19_editorial.pdf PLOS is encouraging authors to pre-register their study designs… 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
In the news: May 2021
…target="_blank">piece describes CRediT in more detail including details of the new ORCID implementation. Preprints The demand for rapid circulation of information during the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way research, especially medical research, is being shared, with a massive increase in the use of preprint servers, with their associated advantages and disadvantages. This has highlighted the… Presentations
…style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; "> 2009 What ethical issues do journal editors bring to COPE?- News
Guest article: Research misconduct
…="https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2019/09/reproducibility-and-replicability-in-research">reproducibility and that, ultimately, science is self-correcting. The direct relationship between science, our everyday lives and the slow iterative nature of the scientific process has been illustrated by Covid-19 vaccinations which were developed in record time only because of the - News
COPE in 2023
…first in-person meeting of the Trustees, Council and staff in October 2022 – the first in three years owing to the Covid-19 pandemic – to discuss how COPE should respond to developments in existing publication integrity issues, as well as newer challenges facing the community such as paper mills and - News
Where next in peer review? Part 2: COPE commentary
In Part 1 of this Commentary we outlined some of the problems, solutions, and tools facing peer review. In Part 2 we address perhaps the most lively area of debate on this topic at the moment: the role of artificial intelligence (AI). Artificial intelligence Covid-19 saw… Seminars
…Powerpoint presentation [PDF 552kB] | Watch presentation [14:19] Poster: Violation of publication ethics in manuscripts submitted to the biomedical journals: analysis and perspectives Download [PDF 2740kB] A report on the COPE European Seminar by Mijam Curno (COPE…- News
Case discussion: Suspected plagiarism
…Case 19-04 Suspected plagiarism A single author submitted a paper to a journal. A similarity check revealed 48% similarity with another published paper. The published paper was by different authors—5 in total. The similarities between the papers were in the introduction, methods and discussion…