- Seminars and webinars
North American Seminar 2019: Women also know history
Karin Wulf, Professor of History and well-known “Chef” in the Scholarly Kitchen introduced us to the terms “manels” and “whanels” (all male panels and all white panels) and provided some suggestions to help identify a more diverse group of experts from which to draw authors, reviewers, editorial board… - Case
Publishing complications and patient safety
…A suggestion was to publish one case per issue, deidentifying the data and to make all 120 presenters (or however many there are) the author(s). Another suggestion was to have a recurring column in a journal that has an ethics committee, who would review the cases and make necessary changes for protecting subjects’ identities. The journal could also seek institutional review of the cases to ensure that… - Case
Withdrawal of paper at proof stage
An original paper was submitted to our journal. After peer review, the authors were requested to revise the paper, and the revision was submitted back to the journal. Our manuscript editor accepted the paper. The paper was scheduled for publication 3 months later after copyediting was completed. We informed the corresponding author about acceptance of the paper and sent them the… - Discussion documents
Citation manipulation
…welcomes feedback from publishers, journal editors, reviewers, researchers, institutions, librarians, funders, and other stakeholders on this subject. Add your feedback below.… - Case
Authorship issue related to misleading action of one author
…version that was reported in the manuscript. When the manuscript was revised, the first author decided to include screenshots from the national agency which described the CDS even though it was no longer available online. The revised manuscript was submitted, re-reviewed, and after a few small changes, accepted for publication. Shortly thereafter, the editorial associate for the journal… - Forum discussion topics
COPE Forum: 13 November 2017: Self-Citation: where's the line?
…that the present work is novel, and unrelated to past works. But on the other hand, too many citations to previous works by the same authors are also inappropriate, considered to be a potential attempt to manipulate an author’s own h-index. So where’s the line? What is a peer reviewer’s responsibility in terms of calling out self-citation? While… - Case
Criteria to determine whether an author’s response to concerns about data validity is satisfactory
…The first is a preliminary investigation by the journal to see if there is a case to answer. It would be appropriate for the editor to ask a member of their editorial team to do a review of the material. This need not be a full investigation but one that is sufficient to ensure that the material used in the publications meets validity standards. The next stage (assuming that questions… - Case
Deceased author
…deceased author would benefit from any COI. Further, the Forum agreed that COIs, leading to bias in the work, would have been uncovered at the time of grant funding or peer review of the manuscript. The Forum applauded the editor’s due diligence in handling this matter.… - 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. … - Research
Exploring publication ethics in the arts, humanities, and social sciences: A COPE study 2019
…fabrication (31%). Recognising and dealing with bias in peer reviewer comments was an issue encountered by 55% of journal editors. Journal editors felt least confident in dealing with data and/or image fabrication issues (24%), fraudulent submissions (23%), and intellectual property and copyright issues (21%). - Case
Should stockholders of a pharmaceutical industry declare conflicts of interest in a research paper?
…(potential or actual) at the time of publication at the latest (and when submitting at the earliest). Once an article is published, disclosure of arising conflicts is not necessary unless the conflicts were 'potential' in the sense that they could be perceived as influencing the article in question (eg, a favorable product review that supports the author's application for employment at a related company).… - Seminars and webinars
WCRI 2019: Preprints and their place in the publication ethics landscape
…on the ethics front, particularly in the health and medical fields where it is unclear whether open discussions on early research are beneficial toward improving the work, or whether there is potential harm in publishing unvetted and non-peer-reviewed findings. In this Monday afternoon session at WCRI, Chris Graf ( - Seminars and webinars
European Seminar 2019: COPE retraction guidelines
Session on retractions at the European Seminar 2019, with speaker Howard Browman who shares a review of the updated Retraction Guidelines from COPE. During the session we also heard from Thed Van Leeuwen and Catriona Fennell. Links to their presentations are below: Watch now - Seminars and webinars
European Seminar 2019: Analysis of retractions, initiators and reasons for retractions
…guidelines View the presentations given by Catriona Fennell and Howard Browman, who were also speakers at this session on retractions: a publisher's perspective on retractions a review of the updated - Seminars and webinars
European Seminar 2019: Exploring Publication Ethics Issues in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
…dealing with bias in reviewer comments as one of the top five issues, with 19% saying this happened frequently. These included: •A lack of support on ethics related to editors acting as reviewers or guest editors •Achieving blind review when the reviewers and authors have ties, or when working versions of papers are often published online before journal submission.… - Case
Reproducibility of methodology
…the methodological elements that gave no cause for concern, and summarised that the methods are suitable and valid. Given this review, the editor who handled the manuscript feels that no editorial action is required. However, concerns surrounding the energy healing methodology and its reproducibility remain. It has been suggested that the reviewer is contacted again for an assessment of the… - Case
Removal of an author
A paper was submitted to a journal with authors A, B, C, D and E. The paper was peer reviewed. Before acceptance, the corresponding author asked for a new author, author F, to be added, and an existing author, author C, to be removed. The editorial office asked all of the authors (authors A, B, C, D, E and F) to complete a change of authorship request form and for the corresponding… - Case
Author displays bullying behaviour towards handling editor
A handling editor rejected a paper without review, after consulting with a senior editor. The corresponding author sent an appeal about 2 weeks later where he requested that the paper be given a second chance and be sent for peer review. He added that, in case of a new decision to reject without review, the editor should provide a detailed response to a number of questions and comments raised… - Forum discussion topics
COPE Forum 11 November 2019: Artificial intelligence (AI) in decision making
…for AI intervention include: journal selection, topic identification, reviewer suggestion, scope assessment, text duplication checking, and statistical analyses; however, this is not a comprehensive list of AI options, and the opportunities for AI use are expanding at a rapid rate. With the advancement of AI, questions surrounding the relevant ethics arise as to if, when, and how AI… - Case
Potentially fake academic affiliation
…a not-for-profit code in State X. Journal A had another paper pending review and the editor rejected that article because of issues about the legitimacy of the institution and possibly the data. The editor thinks that the author may have created a non-profit organisation from which they conduct research (not a traditional academic institution, such as a university or health system). …