- News
Letter from the COPE Chair and Vice-Chair
…fraud” when we find out the impact fraud has on publication integrity. Speakers will discuss how we can deal with post-publication corrections, image manipulation, and paper mills. The week continues on day 3 with a panel discussing post-publication critiques, and the week progresses with sessions sharing insight on “Caste and publishing: an ethics gap?” and “Ethical concerns in publishing on… - News
Predatory behaviour in publication ethics
…scale are paper mills. The most recent COPE guidance in the area defines these as 'An individual, group of individuals, or organisation that aims to manipulate the publication process to achieve the publication of articles for the purposes of financial gain'. Essentially they produce 'original'… - News
Allegations of Misconduct webinar summary, April 2019
…articles unless there is some intervention from the institution. The Forum again noted that COPE does not support sanctions against authors or banning authors from submitting papers because of the legal ramifications” Nancy Chescheir Q: What happens when image manipulation happens after editorial acceptance, during preflight and preparation of figures for publication… - Case
Can a journal retract a paper against the recommendation of an institutional investigation?
…the institute director, who initiated an institutional investigation. The institutional committee said that they checked all of the original data and found no signs of manipulation. The institution also confirmed that the corrected files were in order. Question for COPE Council The editors believe the paper should be retracted based on the serious issues with the… - News
In the News: July Digest
…issue of image manipulation and what to watch out for.https://thebiologist.rsb.org.uk/biologist-features/158-biologist/features/1972-focus-on-image-manipulation-2 How can we help new journals, especially in LMICs, who are new to the field and trying to… - News
In the news: January Digest
…href="https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6460" target="_blank">https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6460 Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are widely used to inform clinical guidelines and decision making. Powerful organisations have emerged to construct a knowledge base in medicine underpinned by the results of systematic reviews. But what if systematic reviews are in fact doing more harm than good? - Case
Using the name of a scientific society inappropriately
…a consensus in the title and the implication that there was a complete systematic consensus process was a falsification and the 'consensus guideline' itself was a fabrication. If this is a journal that regularly publishes clinical guidelines or recommendations, then there should be robust editorial office processes to assure greater transparency and validation. Clinicians depend upon such guidelines… - News
Case discussion: Possible breach of reviewer confidentiality
…s-idea-or-data">What to do if you suspect a reviewer has appropriated an author’s idea or data How to spot potential manipulation of the peer review process What to do if… Self-Citation - Forum discussion November 2017
…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 journals often expect that reviewers will read a paper inside and out, front to back, how much time does a peer reviewer actually spend looking at the reference list? And even if they do…- Case
Appropriate scope of review for retractions
…any manipulation or whether the findings are correct for the other papers, then retraction would be inappropriate, and a statement of concern should be considered, given that the author cannot reply. If an author has committed misconduct, does that mean their whole body of work is invalid? The Forum suggested applying retraction to the 10 articles. For the other articles, a statement of concern for… - Translated resources
El editor y los revisores solicitan que se cite su trabajo: caso
…-reviewers-latin-american-spanish">Guias eticas para revisores pares Qué considerar al ser invitado a hacer una revisión por pares de un manuscrito - Guidelines
Cooperation between research institutions and journals on research integrity and publication misconduct cases
…href="https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts/plagiarism-submitted-manuscript">Plagiarism in a submitted manuscript COPE flowchart Plagiarism in a published article COPE flowchart Image manipulation in a published article COPE… - News
In the news: October 2018 Digest
…/10/02/academic-grievance-studies-and-the-corruption-of-scholarship/" target="_blank">https://areomagazine.com/2018/10/02/academic-grievance-studies-and-the-corruption-of-scholarship/ Cochrane Collaboration News The Cochrane Collaboration is a 26 year old organization that produces systematic reviews in biomedicine. In mid-September 2018 at the group’s annual meeting, the board voted… - News
Case discussion: repeated complaints about a review
…overturned by new research thanks to technological or methodological advancements. Furthermore, data or findings from new research should not normally be added post-publication as a correction to update a paper; a new research paper should be prepared. Nevertheless, some journals do allow authors to publish meta-analysis update articles and online continually updated (“ - Case
Ethics committee waives consent for case report, editor disagrees
…a systematic investigation and that no identifiable information was included in the manuscript. The authors were told that consent was still needed and that they should attempt to obtain it from the children’s parents or next of kin. The authors said that it would not be possible to obtain consent from the parents since the mother of one child was now deceased and the other was lost to follow-up, but… - News
Where next in peer review? Part 1: COPE commentary
We have become used to speaking about scholarly peer review with some scepticism. Critics note that it is subjective and therefore inconsistent, it can be slow, it tends to down-weight negative results, and it is increasingly susceptible to manipulation. Richard Smith, former editor of the BMJ has described… FORUM DISCUSSION TOPIC: comments please
…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 journals often expect that reviewers will read a paper inside and out, front to back, how much time does a peer reviewer actually spend looking at the reference list? And even if they do…- Flowcharts
Scientific rigour of published data: dealing with concerns
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7896759 Concerns are raised about the scientific rigour of a dataset, after publication. The flowchart offers data publishers, such as a journal or a data repository, a step by step guide on how to handle this process. - Translated resources
Guías éticas para revisores pares
…-consider-when-asked-peer-review-manuscript-latin-american-spanish">Qué considerar al ser invitado a hacer una revisión por pares de un manuscrito Cómo reconocer la potencial manipulación del proceso de revisión por pares - Translated resources
Proceso de revisión por pares comprometido en artículos publicados: caso
…://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts/how-spot-potential-manipulation-peer-review-process-latin-american-spanish">Qué considerar al ser invitado a hacer una revisión por pares de un manuscrito Cómo reconocer la potencial manipulación del proceso de…