- Case
Possible self-plagiarism and/or prior publication
…related issues arise from this. Firstly, as it is the journal’s policy to conduct blind peer reviews of each submission received, it is impossible to uphold this policy where submissions already exist, as does the present one, in an identical form in the public domain. Secondly, there is an issue of self-plagiarism. In academic contexts, it is not permissible to re-use identical copy for multiple… - Case
Dispute arising from peer review of a rejected comment and published correction
…that they had been privy to only via their involvement in the peer review of the comment, and that this fact had not been acknowledged in the correction. Group B requested the journal withdraw the correction and re-open the peer review of the comment. As the journal’s management team considered that the first request would leave an error in the scientific record uncorrected and the second… - Case
Simultaneous submission without aiming at duplicate publication
…of deliberate dual submission. Journal B is not at fault as the authors did not make it clear that the paper was still under consideration at journal A. Dual submission in itself may not be sufficient reason for retraction, although it results in wasted time and resources for the journal and reviewers. Journal B should be allowed to re-instate the paper. But journal A should contact the… - News
Letter from the COPE co-Chairs: December 2018
…and what COPE has done – and what we’re doing right now – to provide you with answers to emerging and often difficult publishing ethics questions. We review COPE’s progress to “un-silo” and find “new colours.” We share news from our work with generous and committed people at a small number of universities and research institutions to promote integrity and ethics in research publishing more… - Case
What involvement should a journal have in a dispute about an article published in the journal?
…data to produce a new paper (if, indeed, a re-analysis leads to new results). Should they not choose to pursue this, the journal intends to publish the scholar’s reply and original author’s response, likely alongside a final word from the editor-in-chief. Any response or outcome along these lines is still pending. How might editors ensure the integrity of data beyond the safeguards built into… - News
Guest editorial: Data availability statements
…clear rationale of reproducing results and re-analysis with appropriate methods. This exchange highlighted a lack of adherence to principles of reproducibility. The scientific community as a whole needs to take steps to help all parties understand and take responsibility for their role in assuring the integrity and trustworthiness of the research record. This vitally includes the duty to provide… - Case
Possible violation of the Helsinki Declaration on Scientific Research with Humans
…when the risks are found to outweigh the potential benefits…”; the authors did not stop this study for over a year. And, an unproven intervention should only ever be carried out if “it offers hope of saving life, re-establishing health or alleviating suffering” and that in the nature of research it is “designed to evaluate its safety and efficacy” not to establish a benchmark… - Case
Misattributed authorship and unauthorized use of data
…expression of concern. Unauthorized use of data came up as a prime issue in a recent study of the re-classification of the COPE cases in the past 10 years. Also, the Montreal statement on research integrity in cross boundary research collaborations came out of this year’s World Conference on Research Integrity ( - News
Post-publication conflicts of interest
…conflicts of interest include the funding source for research or for other support, such as writing assistance, in addition to authors’ financial or non-financial interests. When conflicts of interest are submitted, revised, or corrected during the peer review process, they should be taken into account during manuscript (re)assessment and revision. Corrections and retractions However, as… - Case
Request for a retraction from a pharmaceutical company
…that PC claims there is new evidence not available in the published papers? And, if it comes to it, can/should the journal publish new evidence in the Letter to the Editor? How informed should the journal keep the pharmaceutical company? The initial letter is 11 pages long, can COPE provide any further guidance on Letters to the Editor, re: length and content - what to and what not… - Case
Author retracts request to be removed from author list
The Forum agreed that once journals are aware of a potential problem they must investigate, regardless of whether the concern has been retracted. An important issue in this case is that their ability to investigate is compromised because of the non-availability of the original data. It is therefore not possible to ask for re-analysis; all that is known is that there is an error in a table.… COPE Governance
…href="https://publicationethics.org/about/council/michael-wise">Michael Wise. Officers serve a term of three years with the possibility of a further term of three years if re-elected. Council COPE Council is elected by the COPE membership. Elections for vacancies on Council are held annually if positions are available. Council is responsible for the…- News
Allegations of Misconduct webinar summary, April 2019
…introduced COPE's Core Practice Allegations of Misconduct and the responsibility to ensure that you have taken adequate steps before making a decision to ensure it is reasonable and to reduce the possibility that the decision is biased, arbitrary or fundamentally unfair. If you're looking at your processes it would be useful to look at the elements of "Due Process" (21mins into the recording above).… - News
Case Discussion: Withdrawal of paper at proof stage
…do not agree with the edited and typeset version, the author dispute/s would need to be resolved by the authors and re-editing could be negotiated with the journal. If the corresponding author loses faith in the integrity of the work and suspects co-author misconduct such as fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, unethical research, or bias from a conflict of interest, these issues also need to be… Membership application FAQ
…membership prior to that membership being granted. Journals already using the COPE logo or otherwise inferring membership will be asked to remove those elements before an application can proceed. Back to top When can I reapply for membership? If your application for COPE membership has been declined, you are welcome to re…- Case
Attempt to supress legitimate scientific results
…editor received three emails from the manager at institute B. The first one said that the paper “contains errors and speculation which were not able to be addressed at the time of finalising the text, as the paper was not re-submitted to the institute B editorial process following review by the journal” and that institute B believed “the paper is not in the interests of furthering an accurate and… - Case
Dealing with cases with culturally offensive content
…journal’s endorsement of all non-disclaimered articles. The work involved in re-assessing back catalogues could be enormous and should not necessarily be seen as essential. Editors could, for example, carry out searches for similar articles when one is flagged as problematic, or set a date limit on how far back in their catalogue they will go in making reassessments. In broader terms it may be… - News
Diversity, equity, inclusivity and accessibility: COPE commentary
…in 2024. The current site doesn’t support the diversity of languages used by our members. For example, it doesn’t properly display names which include certain diacritics. So we’re changing our fonts to make sure that all our members’ names display as they should. We know that the website search isn’t as good as it should be, so this will improve on the new website. Curated collections on topics… Text Recycling: Forum discussion topic March 2013
…Where overlap is considered to be minor, authors may be asked to re-write overlapping sections, and cite their previous article(s). More significant overlap may result in rejection of the manuscript. Where the overlap includes data, Editors should handle cases according to the COPE flowchart for dealing with suspected- News
Case discussion: Suspected plagiarism
…must have clear instructions on obtaining acceptable permissions to use previously copyrighted material in a paper. To re-publish a figure, a copyrighted survey tool or patented methodology in a new manuscript, the author needs to know who holds the IP to the original work and the scope of the permission needed, the latter of which may depend upon the publishing plan (e.g., use in on-line or print…