- Case
Dispute over submitted comment and the right to be forgotten
Some time after publishing a paper, a journal received a comment highlighting serious issues with the methods reported, and claiming that the conclusions could not be trusted. The comment was 13 pages long and rather technical in nature, so it was peer reviewed. The journal contacted the authors to respond to the comment but they replied that they wished instead to completely… - Case
Consequence for dual submission
An author submitted work to our journal (journal A) which, after two rounds of peer review, was accepted and published. One week after it was published, the editors of journal B contacted our journal stating that this work, with the exact same title, authors and content, had been submitted to journal B and, after receiving an acceptance letter, the author withdrew the paper, informing them… - Flowcharts
Arabic: all flowcharts
…This is all of COPE's flowcharts in Arabic. For the latest version (English language) of this guidance visit https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.2.26. Other languages: Chinese | - Flowcharts
Chinese: all flowcharts
…This is COPE's flowcharts in Chinese For the latest version (English language) of this guidance visit https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.2.26. Other languages: Arabic | - Flowcharts
Croatian: all flowcharts
…This is COPE's flowcharts in Croatian For the latest version (English language) of this guidance visit https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.2.26. Other languages: Arabic | - Flowcharts
French: all flowcharts
…This is COPE's flowcharts in French. For the latest version (English language) of this guidance visit https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.2.26. Other languages: Arabic | - Flowcharts
Italian: all flowcharts
…This is COPE's flowcharts in Italian For the latest version (English language) of this guidance visit https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.2.26. Other languages: Arabic | - Flowcharts
Japanese: all flowcharts
…This is COPE's flowcharts in Japanese For the latest version (English language) of this guidance visit https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.2.26. Other languages: Arabic | - Flowcharts
Persian: 14 flowcharts
…This is COPE's flowcharts in Persian For the latest version (English language) of this guidance visit https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.2.26. Other languages: Arabic | - Flowcharts
Polish: all flowcharts
…This is COPE's flowcharts in Polish For the latest version (English language) of this guidance visit https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.2.26. Other languages: Arabic | - Flowcharts
Turkish: all flowcharts
…This is COPE's flowcharts in Turkish For the latest version (English language) of this guidance visit https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.2.26. Other languages: Arabic | - Flowcharts
Undisclosed conflict of interest in a published article
…communicate with the author and reader during the investigation. The author's institution should be involved when the author denies an alleged conflict of interest or to inform an institution in cases of suspected misconduct. A published article may need a correction or to be retracted, dependent on whether the editor considers the conflict of interest to have affected the peer review… - Flowcharts
Changes in authorship: Addition of extra author – before publication
…KB Key points Major changes in response to reviewer comments, e.g. adding new data might justify the inclusion of a new author. More flowcharts on authorship changes - Case
Stolen article
…reviewers and editor are not the authors of article B. The authors of article A said they spoke with the first author of article B, who promised to withdraw it. Article B was retracted, with the abstract being removed and a retraction notice posted. However, the stated reason for retraction was errors. The authors of article A said they were surprised by this. What we know appears to be… - Translated resources
COPE同行评审专家道德指南
…this guidance visit https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.9 Related resources Ethical guidelines for peer reviewers (English) Ethical guidelines for peer reviewers (Spanish)… - Forum discussion topics
COPE Forum 24 July 2017: Preprints: what are the issues?
Preprints and working papers have been posted and shared for many years. They report research results that have not undergone peer review, although in many cases the authors also submit to a journal (before, after or at the same time as making a preprint available). In the past 5 years, the number of preprint servers and preprints has expanded and new disciplines, notably biology and life… - Forum discussion topics
COPE Forum 12 February 2016: Data sharing
…Australia, for example) and the editors do not have a policy of peer review of the data prior to acceptance of the paper, how will requiring data sharing actually improve the integrity of the research? Other questions include how long should data remain available, who should manage the availability and sharing of the data, and how much will these requirements cost? In addition, there is a need to ensure… - Forum discussion topics
COPE Forum 9 December 2015: COPE consultation/guidance document on handling competing interests
…of a conflict of interest is independent of the occurrence of impropriety.”[1] Publishers have interpreted competing interests in a number of ways: one example is from the PLOS journals [2] “A competing interest is anything that interferes with, or could reasonably be perceived as interfering with, the full and objective presentation, peer review, editorial decision-making, or publication of… - Forum discussion topics
COPE Forum 10 March 2015: Coming back from disgrace
…research misconduct, would you agree to review the paper? If you did agree to review the paper, and the author asks for blind reviewing as he/she could not otherwise be assured of an unbiased process, would you agree to the request (assuming you don’t have blind reviewing already)? This was a recent COPE case. Flowing from that, should there be a process for researchers who have… - Forum discussion topics
COPE Forum 9 December 2014: Publication ethics issues in the social sciences
…researchers disagree with the requirement of prior ethics approval saying that their research is low risk and needs no review. These researchers sometimes do their work under the auspices of community groups and avoid institutional ethics review. As well, there are disciplines which object to all such requirements or find them problematic to their particular fields of study. Many of the complaints…