- Discussion documents
Guest edited collections best practice
…projects. Guest editors should be provided with clear terms and guidance on their role in organising, commissioning, and editing content for collections in the journal. Standard ethics, principles, and policies of the journal apply. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the content published in their journal, including in guest edited collections. Some types of broad and complex… - Seminars and webinars
Introduction to publication ethics and the COPE ethics toolkit
…top Publication ethics workshop This workshop introduces listeners to some of COPE’s basic principles on publication ethics. Siri and Trevor review the Ethics Toolkit and Core Practices, and highlights common issues encountered by journal editors. Publication ethics cases Using real cases brought to COPE by members, Trevor and Siri ask participants how they would… - Discussion documents
Dealing with concerns about the integrity of published research
…regardless of the method of communication. Good practice is to have a policy which sets a timeline for a response. Responses should be neutral and based on facts, indicating the intended action. If the investigation finds that the concern is valid, follow the appropriate COPE guidance for dealing with the issue. It is important to respect the correspondent’s right to… - Case
Problem with figures
…you that we shall cooperate in any way you see fit and our records on the study are open.” and, in a separate message a few hours later: “I am looking again at these pictures. If you carefully study the images you will find that almost all the fields are different and there is no similarity at all. You always can find groups of cells, with a bit of imagination you can make them look… - Case
CV study: was ethics approval and consent required?
A submitted paper detailing the negative experiences of overseas doctors applying for a training post in a district general hospital was poorly presented and scientifically weak, but on a topic of great interest and importance. The study consisted of an analysis of the CVs of the applicants and an analysis of responses to questionnaires sent to them with their rejection letters. Over a third… - Case
Suspected systematic data fabrication
The editor received correspondence from a third party suggesting that a paper published in 2005 in the journal by four co-authors contained suspect data. The suspicion was based on the observation that in three separate figures all error bars were identical. Indeed, the third party subjected 32 publications from the same group of authors to independent statistical appraisal and concluded that… - Case
Plagiarism in a case report
…the case report voluntarily. Author A wrote to me requesting formal withdrawal of the case report. However, before I received this letter, Author A telephoned again to say that having taken legal advice he wished to retract this request and leave it with me to decide on the appropriate course of action. The journal subsequently received a letter from the Director of Research… - Case
HIV homeopathy
…should have been sought from a local ethics committee and that the participants should have been informed about antiretroviral therapy when consent was sought. We were also concerned that this protocol apparently was approved by an ethics committee. We rejected the manuscript and wrote to the authors’ institution expressing our concerns and requesting they investigate further and keep us updated on… - Case
Inadequate reporting of a trial, despite earlier rejection from a different journal
We have been contacted by a reviewer after he spotted a paper he had reviewed for us (journal 1) now published in a second journal (journal 2). Both journals are members of COPE. The reviewer had advised we reject the paper when it was sent to him to review in September 2008. This was based on his assessment of the paper and also the supplementary material he was sent by us: protocol, CONSORT… - Case
Inadequate assurance of human research ethics for a questionnaire
…study is to explore the relationship between them, and finally their impact on organizational performance. The result of this research will be published by considering privacy issues. It is important to note that the organization’s management has a strong commitment to the above noted subjects. Besides a non-valuable reward, the most important incentive for employees’ participation is that they are in… - Flowcharts
Systematic manipulation of the publication process
…manipulation. Flowcharts offer a step by step process for editors or publishers to use when they are handling suspected manipulation. Recommended actions are suggested depending on the type of problem or indication of manipulation. Related resources Addressing concerns about systematic manipulation of the publication… - Guidelines
Ethics toolkit for a successful editorial office
…of what, and how, conflicts of interest must be disclosed by authors, reviewers, editors, journals and publishers. Requirements for data availability, use of reporting guidelines, and registration of clinical trials and other study designs should be clear in journal guidelines. Journals must publish clear guidelines on the ethical conduct of research, according to the research… - Research
Paper mills research
…693 KB Key points Paper mills are the process by which manufactured manuscripts are submitted to a journal for a fee on behalf of researchers with the purpose of providing an easy publication for them, or to offer authorship… - Case
Duplicate publication and alleged image manipulation
…in a non-accusatory way, with his reasons for retraction, and mention that the institution has failed to respond. As one of the authors is from a different institution, another suggestion was to contact that institution and request an investigation on the basis that all authors should take responsibility for published work.… - Case
Stolen article
At acceptance but before publication, we found article A submitted to journal A was highly similar to article B, published 5 months earlier in conference proceedings in journal B by another publisher. The abstracts were nearly identical, but the author lists and affiliations did not overlap. We asked the authors to explain this and they said article A is their own work, but it was inadvertently… - Case
Temporary exception to double anonymised review policy
…discovered, decision letters for multiple manuscripts had been shared with reviewers. Four were sent to the same reviewers to review the resubmitted article. No reviewers contacted the editors to let them know if they were aware of the authors’ identities. Decisions were made based on submitted reviews for two of these (one reject, one minor revision) and two await reviews. Several manuscripts could… - Case
Submissions from members of the editorial board
…influence the handling of their submissions. The authors claimed that “in view of the delay in the handling” they believed that they were “entitled to a positive response about acceptance”. The authors asked if there was anyone on the editorial board who, during the afternoon, could read the manuscript and make a preliminary decision as to whether one specific paper was likely to be accepted, even if… Membership subscription fees
…membership Reduced membership subscription fees Member benefits Further details on the benefits of COPE membership and criteria for membership. Individual journal membership …Membership subscription fees
… Member benefits Further details on the benefits of COPE membership and criteria for membership. Individual journal membership Number of issues Fees per…- Case
Duplicate publication
…topic areas and both are agreed that they will, in principle, follow the American lead and will deny publication to those proven to have been engaged in duplicate publication or plagiarism. Both have also agreed to write a joint editorial on this issue once the outcome of this case is known. However I would be grateful if advice could be given to us concerning the appropriateness of such action…