- News
Paper mills in the news
…the LMU Open Science Center. In March, 2022 a preprint by Anna Abalkina revealed an extensive series of 434 publications originating from Russia-based paper mill, International Publisher LLC. The study estimated the total financial value of authorship slots offered by the publisher in the three years between 2019-2021 at $6.5 million, raising… - Case
Concern about reporting of a trial and also its DSMB
…editorial that lays out our concerns with the conduct of the trial, but notwithstanding those, our reasons why we think it should be published. We also discussed whether we needed to raise the issue of the DSMB with the authors’ institution. We discussed the paper with our internal ethics board and they unanimously agreed we should reject the paper (mainly because of the concerns over the… - Case
Inappropriate authorship on students paper
…is sure the letter has been received. Another suggestion was to contact any professional bodies that the author might be a member of, informing them of the inappropriate behaviour. The editor could also write an editorial on authorship policies, referring to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICJME) guidelines. For the future, the editor might consider altering the… - Case
Serial plagiarism by an experienced author
…has been taken. The, as yet unanswered, question is whether these figures are typical for an international journal.… - Case
Misattributed authorship and unauthorized use of data
After efforts to investigate the alleged misconduct had failed, the journal referred the case to the institution where the misconduct reportedly occured. The editor was subsequently informed that the reported issues had been discussed internally and that it was ultimately decided that no further action or investigation would take place. Since there is no conclusive evidence of… - Case
Author of rejected paper publicly names and criticises peer reviewer
…and will also be referring it to the journal's internal ethics committee. The matter now seems to have died down, but it raises many questions. Question(s) for the COPE Forum • Should the journal have handled this differently? • Should the journal formally notify the first author's institution about her behaviour? • Are the additional instructions to authors on our… - Case
Undisclosed conflict of interest
…published another protocol from the group, as well as to the university (the lead author is associated with the university). In the letter, the CMG movement is characterized as a controversial, multimillion dollar international enterprise. The healing modalities promoted by CMG do not appear to be evidence based. In the letter, evidence was provided showing that all researchers are long term public… - Seminars and webinars
Seminar 2021: Introduction to publication ethics
…10px; float: left; width: 90px; height: 90px;" />Simon Linacre is Director of International Marketing & Development at Cabells having previously spent 15 years at Emerald Publishing, where he had direct experience in journal acquisitions, open access and business development. Simon is an ALPSP tutor, currently leading courses… Equal Opportunities Policy
…responsibility has been delegated to the Executive Officer. All managers must set an appropriate standard of behaviour, lead by example, and ensure that those they manage adhere to the policy and promote our aims and objectives with regard to equal opportunities recruitment and best practice for selection when necessary. Managers will be given appropriate training on equal opportunities awareness and…- News
Predatory behaviour in publication ethics
…business model, usually with little regard for ethical standards. COPE’s guidance on predatory publishing defines the practice as ‘the systematic for-profit publication of purportedly scholarly content…in a deceptive or fraudulent way and without any regard for quality assurance’. Some of the hallmarks of… New UK Panel for Research Integrity
…might do to avoid problems arising and to have general standards that are clearly understood. This will be much more effective than mopping up mistakes. An early priority will be to draw up a set of national guidelines. The agency will aim to draw together all the best elements of the wide range of polices, frameworks, and codes of conduct currently in use into a single…- News
Case discussion: gift authorship
…articles per year. This high productivity raised suspicions that the author was not always fulfilling the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) criteria for authorship. Questions for COPE: What submission rate should make editors concerned about whether an author truly deserves authorship? When should editors raise concerns about overly… - News
In the news: March Digest
…href="https://blog.brill.com/humanitiesmatter/publication_ethics_michael_dougherty.html" target="_blank">https://blog.brill.com/humanitiesmatter/publication_ethics_michael_dougherty.html Conflicts of Interest/Competing Interests The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recently proposed changes to its disclosure form. Feedback about the proposed changes is due by April 30, with submitted comments being… - News
In the news: June 2021
…href="https://products.abc-clio.com/ABC-CLIOCorporate/product.aspx?pc=A6237P" target="_blank">recently published book addresses the issue of Plagiarism in Higher Education covering topics including self-plagiarism, plagiarism among international students, essay mills, and contract cheating, with the goal of engaging campus communities in informed conversations about proactive approaches to plagiarism. Peer review Two recent studies look at ways to deal… - Case
Lack of trial registration leads to new concerns about study conduct and ethical review/approval
…Co-chair B indicated they would like to remain anonymous but would be willing to publicly outline their concerns as part of an internal investigation if a formal request for an enquiry was sent to the institution. We did not hear back from the authors for some time after our request for a copy of the ethics committee approval, so we posted a comment on the article to make the readers aware about the fact… - Forum discussion topics
Ethical considerations around watchlists
…a record of authors or journals who have behaved unethically, either for internal publisher/journal purposes or as a public reference point. Several publicly available watchlists have been removed in recent years owing to concerns around the lack of transparency in the criteria they use. Others note the legal, reputational, and data protection risks involved in maintaining such lists. However, with the… - News
In the news: December 2018 Digest
…supports some of the Plan S content, but opposes others. As this Plan evolves in response to reactions from key stakeholding commuities internationally and Science Europe's overall end plan, the publishing ecosystem will likely change. Controversy Several high profile and controversial papers have prompted vitriolic responses and at times, threats to the authors. Examples include a paper… - News
In the news: August
…16.8.19 Research Ethics The University of Central Lancashire joins the University of Cape Town to adopt a code of conduct to stamp out “ethics dumping”, in which international research takes advantage of the lack of awareness or regulation in some poorer countries to conduct work. Examples include high risk medical research studies for which participants have experienced a… - News
In the news: June Digest
…the "necessary transition to full and immediate Open Access". https://www.coalition-s.org/revised-implementation-guidance/ Data sharing In order to simplify research data policies across journals to avoid confusion by researchers and journal staff, the Data Policy Standardization and… Membership application FAQ
… conduct and publish original research, and where the results are disseminated through standard scholarly channels encourage training in research ethics and research publication ethics Find out more about university and research institute membership. Please note:…