Research institutions and journals both have important duties in the management of research misconduct and adherence to publication ethics. It is therefore important for institutions and journals to communicate and collaborate effectively. These COPE guidelines deal with the expectations and processes for communication.
Ensuring research and publication integrity requires that institutions and journals/publishers prioritise their shared interests and cooperate with each other where necessary. Institutions and journals should promote best practice among researchers, authors, reviewers, and editors (eg, through policies and training). Journals should make efforts to detect misconduct before publication (eg, by screening for plagiarism, paper mill manuscripts, and peer review fraud). Institutions should investigate allegations of research misconduct, and journals should correct or retract findings that are invalid or unreliable (whether the errors are because of misconduct or honest errors) to prevent readers from being misled. Research reports that are incorrect or misleading may require post-publication amendment, even when allegations of misconduct by the researchers are not upheld after institutional investigation.
The guidelines provide recommendations for actions by research institutions and journals on points of contact, information sharing, and communication. The guidelines also discuss potential misconduct affecting more than one journal or institution, and how the published scholarly record should be corrected.
Key points
Effective communication and collaboration between institutions and journals on cases relating to research integrity is essential.
Institutions should
- have a point of contact for investigations on research misconduct (research integrity officer or office) and publish their contact details prominently
- inform journals/publishers about any findings that relate to the reliability or attribution of published work that may arise during a research integrity or misconduct investigation
- respond to journals if they request information about issues, such as disputed authorship, misleading reporting, competing interests, or other factors, including honest errors, that could affect the reliability of published work
- initiate inquiries into unacceptable publication practice or allegations of research misconduct, consistent with national and university policies, raised by journals, if the potential violation occurred while the researchers were under the aegis of the institution
- have policies supporting responsible research conduct, and policies and procedures in place for investigating allegations of unreliability, research integrity issues, or misconduct.
Journals/publishers should
- ensure that the process for raising queries about research and publication integrity to the journal is clear and available online, including contact details for the point of contact (eg, publication.ethics@[publisherdomain.ext] or research.integrity@[publisherdomain.ext] is recommend as a standardised form)
- inform institutions if misconduct by their researchers is suspected, and provide evidence to support these concerns
- cooperate with investigations and respond promptly to institutions’ questions about misconduct allegations, with dedicated individuals or teams assigned to investigate and communicate with institutions
- be ready to publish changes to published articles (corrections, expressions of concerns, addenda, retractions) according to COPE guidelines when provided with findings from institutional investigations
- have policies and procedures for responding to institutions and other organisations that investigate cases of research misconduct
- promote good publication practices and processes for identifying concerns in submissions early in the publication process.
Related resources
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When institutions are contacted by journals COPE flowchart
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Retraction guidelines COPE guidelines
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Plagiarism in a submitted manuscript COPE flowchart
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Plagiarism in a published article COPE flowchart
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Image manipulation in a published article COPE flowchart
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Fabricated data in a published article COPE flowchart
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Suspected fabricated data in a submitted manuscript COPE flowchart
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Suspected ethical problem in a submitted manuscript COPE flowchart
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Handling of post publication critiques COPE flowchart
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Sharing of information among editors-in-chief regarding possible misconduct COPE guidelines
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About this resource
Cite this as: COPE Council. COPE Guidelines: Cooperation between research institutions and journals on research integrity and publication misconduct cases — English.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2018.1.3
©2024 Committee on Publication Ethics (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
Full page history
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27 March 2024
Version 1: March 2012
Version 2: March 2024