This document discusses ethics and peer review in scientific publishing. It introduces peer review as a process where authors ask third parties, usually publishers, to verify the quality of their work. The publisher then does an internal check and sends the paper to experts to review. The authors then revise the paper based on reviewer comments before a final decision is made on whether to publish. The document outlines some potential ethical issues around authorship, data handling, and editorial oversight during peer review and publication. It provides examples of how authors, editors, or reviewers could act unethically at different stages of the peer review process.
12. Data
• Honorary authorship
• False authors
• Submit in someone else’s name
• Salami slicing
• Miss off a major contributor
• Plagiarism (copy someone else’s work)
• Self-plagiarism (copy your own previously published
work)
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14. Data
• Make up the data
• Steal someone else’s data (without citation)
• Republish old data
• Unethical use of subjects
– No informed consent
– Coercion (force someone to take part)
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15. Editorial Oversight
How can:
• Authors
• Editors
• Peer reviewers
cheat the peer review system?
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16. Editorial Oversight
Authors:
• Peer review your own paper
• Resubmit an old paper
• Get your mates to accept/review the paper (CoIs)
Editors:
• Skip peer review
• Ignore peer review recommendations
• Ignore complaints about potential unethical behaviour
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17. Editorial Oversight
Peer reviewers:
• Not look at the paper properly
• Stall the process
• Steal ideas in the paper and publish them later
• Send the paper to someone else
• Lie in their peer review
• Not disclose conflicts of interest
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18. What Can an Editor do?
Investigate:
• Get a second opinion
• Refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics
• Contact author’s university/funding body/
ethics committee
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Publish (or not):
• Reject
• Correct
• Expression of concern
• Retract
19. Case Studies
In groups of five:
• Choose two case studies
• Read, discuss and prepare conclusions
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