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April 2025

Updated flowcharts and infographic

Welcome to the April issue of COPE Digest

Welcome to the April Issue of COPE Digest. This is my last official “Letter from the COPE Chair”. At the end of the month, I will be handing over to Nancy Chescheir, who will take the reins and guide COPE through the next three years leading the implementation of our new strategic plan. I am sad to be stepping down after four years in your service as Chair, but I rest peacefully knowing that you remain in good hands with Nancy and our new Officers, Heather Tierney (Secretary) and Rachel Safer (Treasurer). As I reflect over the past four years as Chair, I realise how lucky and blessed I was to have the opportunity to work with the wonderful and dedicated COPE Team and the equally wonderful volunteers that make up COPE Council and the Board of Trustees.

Before we move on to this month’s updates, I want to take a moment to especially thank our outgoing Officers, Tara Hoke (Secretary) and Michael Wise (Treasurer), for their service. Both joined Council in 2013, and became Officers in 2019. They have been invaluable in supporting and guiding COPE through some challenging years and leave us in a stronger position than when they started. I will miss them greatly, but I know that they will continue to offer support in new ways. Thank you for your ongoing engagement with COPE, and I ask you all to warmly welcome our new Chair and Officers as they take on their new roles in May.

Education is one of our four main goals and this month’s editorial ([link removed]) explains one of our actions; to start a thorough review of our current guidance. In this month's Digest we're pleased to share the first three pieces of guidance to be updated and we’ll keep you informed as we continue with our review.

United2Act (a joint COPE and STM project) will be hosting an educational webinar in May. How to recognise, avoid and prevent paper mills ([link removed]) will be held at two separate times and to make it more accessible everyone looking for more knowledge about paper mills.

Thank you for your ongoing engagement with COPE, and I ask you all to warmly welcome our new Chair and Officers as they take on their new roles in May.

READ MORE ([link removed]) >

Daniel Kulp, COPE Chair

EDUCATION: COPE GOAL

In this editorial we outline one of four new strategic goals and our plans to implement it. COPE's Education goal is to provide education and support to empower stakeholders to uphold the integrity of the publication process and published record.

To do this we will:
* develop and implement guidance and educational programs to empower all COPE Members with the knowledge and tools necessary to uphold the integrity of the publication process;
* create and implement a system that delivers more timely, accurate, and contextualised advice to all stakeholders within the scholarly publishing community;
* enhance the visibility and accessibility of all of COPE’s guidance and resources to improve the dissemination of ethical guidelines and resources.

COPE EDITORIAL ([link removed]) >
REVIEW AND UPDATE: INFOGRAPHIC AND FLOWCHARTS


** RECOGNISE POTENTIAL MANIPULATION OF THE PEER REVIEW PROCESS
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The infographic now includes recommendations around verifying reviewer identities and email addresses, and updated references.

VIEW INFOGRAPHIC ([link removed]) >
WHEN REDUNDANT (OR DUPLICATE) PUBLICATION IS SUSPECTED

These two flowcharts are updated to include:
* checking for image reuse as well as other forms of duplication;
* clarification over steps to take when there is no response from an institution;
* when to use an Expressions of Concern or a retraction;
* who publishes the note of duplicate publication.

VIEW FLOWCHART: FOR A PUBLISHED ARTICLE ([link removed]) >

VIEW FLOWCHART: FOR A SUBMITTED MANUSCRIPT ([link removed]) >
HANDLING CONCURRENT AND DUPLICATE SUBMISSIONS

Is it ethical practice for an author to submit a paper to more than one journal?

What policies and practices should journals and publishers have in place around duplicate, or concurrent, submission?

READ COPE POSITION ([link removed]) >
NEW COPE FORUM CASES

New cases were submitted to the COPE Forum in March. Read the full case with a summary of the discussion and advice offered by participants of the Forum:
* Disputed authorship in a retracted paper ([link removed])
The publisher contacted authors of a paper while investigating whether the paper was part of an authorship-for-sale scheme. The publisher then retracted the paper. An author requested that their name be removed from the authorship list and the retraction notice. What should the publisher do in this situation?

* Previous behavioural misconduct by a reviewer ([link removed])
An editorial office often looks for and chooses reviewers after they have used the list of reviewers suggested by the overseeing editor. On receiving the reviewer reports, the overseeing editor informed the editorial office that the reviewer sexually harassed the author some time ago. What action should the journal take?


** DECLARING FUNDING SOURCES FOR RESEARCH
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What are the best practices for publishing complete funding statements?
Nancy Chescheir, COPE Vice-Chair, introduces the discussion held at our March COPE Forum. The topic discussion is open for your comments.

VIDEO AND DISCUSSION ([link removed]) >


** HOW TO RECOGNISE, AVOID AND PREVENT PAPER MILLS
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WEDNESDAY 14 MAY 9.15-10:15 BST / UTC+1
THURSDAY 15 MAY 16:00-17:00 BST / UTC+1

Do you know about paper mills in academic research? Paper mills can have profound negative impacts on you, the public’s trust in science and society as a whole.

If you want to find out what they are, how they work and why they should matter to you join this United2Act webinar: Recognise, avoid and prevent paper mills. The webinar will be held at two separate times to reach a wider audience.

REGISTER FOR WEBINAR ([link removed]) >


** YOUR PUBLICATION ETHICS CASE
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COPE Members only

COPE Members: if you have a publication ethics issue you are currently dealing with and need advice from other Members, submit your case for discussion and advice at the Forum, or from COPE Council.

The next COPE Forum will be held in June 2025 beginning with a discussion on the topic of AI, followed by discussion and advice by the participants about the cases submitted by COPE Members.

SUBMIT A CASE ([link removed]) >


** SHORT COURSE ON PUBLICATION MANAGEMENT
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MINNEAPOLIS, UNITED STATES

COPE Chair Dan Kulp is speaking at the short course on publication management, during the Council of Science Editors (CSE) annual meeting.

The topic of Dan's talk will be publication ethics and research integrity and will take place on Sunday 6 May 2025.

MORE INFORMATION ([link removed]) >


** WORKSHOP: INTRODUCTION TO PUBLICATION ETHICS
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OSLO, NORWAY

COPE Council Members Siri Lunde Strømme and Matt Hodgkinson will lead this interactive workshop, part of the European Association of Science Editors (EASE) annual conference, on Tuesday 13 May 2025.

They will introduce attendees to the core principles of sound publication ethics for journal editors and the policies needed to support these. Attendees will be able to take part in case discussions and there will be plenty of opportunities for questions.

MORE INFORMATION ([link removed]) >


** WEBINAR: ETHICAL PUBLISHING IN ACADEMIC RESEARCH
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SINGAPORE

COPE Trustee, Trevor Lane, will lead this webinar which is part of a series of webinars on research integrity and ethics hosted by the National Institute of Education (NIE).

Trevor will begin with an introduction to publication ethics followed by an interactive cases session, and a Q&A. The webinar will be held on Thursday 22 May 2025.

MORE INFORMATION ([link removed]) >


** Submitting a guest editorial or opinion piece to COPE
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We welcome guest editorials and opinion articles regarding research and publication ethics from COPE members. Please read the COPE guest editorial policy ([link removed]) before submitting your article.


** COPE Digest Editors:
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Itamar Ashkenazi, COPE Council Member
Trevor Lane, COPE Trustee and Council Member
Managing Editor, Sarah Gillmore, COPE Engagement & Outreach Officer

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