Publication Ethics Guide

TEAM 2
• PRADEEP R (22PHD0527)
• THILLAIKARASI R (22PHD0517)
• SURIYA BEGUM M (22PHD0538)
• REZVY P A (22PHD0539)
• SWASTHIKA BHASKAR (22PHD0512)
• SUNIL KUMAR G (22PHD0547)
• KIRUBAKARAN M (22PHD0541)
• VARATHAN G (22PHD0519)
• PAUL RAJ T (22PHD0522)

CONTENTS
• Publication Ethics
• Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
• World Association of Medical Editors (WAME)
• Conflicts of interest
• Publication misconduct
• Violation of Publication ethics, authorship and contributorship
• Identification of Publication misconduct
• Complaints and appeals
• Predatory Publishers and Journals

Definition of Publication Ethics
• Publication ethics are the guidelines that are
developed to ensure world-class scientific
publications, public's faith in scientific
research, and proper credit for authors'
original ideas and work.

Introduction of Publication of Ethics
 Ethical standards for publication exist to ensure high-quality scientific
publications, public trust in scientific findings, and that people receive
credit for their work and ideas.
 The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) is an international forum
for editors and publishers of peer-reviewed journals that provide the
code of conduct and best practice guidelines that define publication
ethics and advises editors on how to handle cases of research and
publication misconduct.
 In this editorial, we introduce concepts collectively called publication
ethics including statutory and ethics approval, informed consent, data
manipulation and research fraud, plagiarism, simultaneous
submission, duplicate publication, self-citation, consent to reproduce
published material, ethics of authorship, and conflicts of interest. It is
important to avoid the following

Importance of Ethics
 First, norms promote the aims of such as knowledge,
truth, and avoidance of error.
 For example, prohibitions against falsifying, or
misrepresenting research data promote the truth
and minimize error.
 Second, since research often involves a great deal of
cooperation and coordination among many different
people in different disciplines and institutions,
ethical standards promote the values that are
essential to collaborative work, such as trust,
accountability, mutual respect, and fairness.

COPE – COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION ETHICS
• COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) is dedicated to
educating and assisting editors, publishers, universities,
research institutes, and everyone else concerned in publication
ethics.
• Over the past 25 years, COPE has expanded to serve members
from many academic disciplines worldwide.
• COPE was established in 1997 by a group of medical and
scientific journal editors who were concerned about publication
misconduct.
• committed to educating and assisting editors, publishers, and
others involved in publication ethics.
• Provide advice to editors and publishers, how to handle cases of
research and publication misconduct.

• Plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, inappropriate
authorship, duplicate submission/multiple submissions
are all examples of publication misconduct.
• The major function of the Committee on Publication Ethics
(COPE) is to provide ethical advice and guidance to journal
editors and publishers.
• These guidelines are used to inform publication ethics and
prevent misconduct.
• Promoting integrity in research and its publication.

• Guidelines were framed by COPE committee members. They
address
Study design and ethical approval
Data analysis
Plagiarism
Simultaneous Submission
Duplicate Publication
Salami Slicing
Ethics of Authorship
Conflict of interest
Self citation

COPE - Changes in Authorship
Corresponding Author request addition of extra author
before publication

COPE Case Study: Plagiarism and Misrepresentation in a
Medical Research Paper
Case Summary:
• A medical researcher submitted a manuscript to a reputable medical
journal. After the paper was published, another researcher contacted the
journal's editor and reported that a significant portion of the paper had
been copied verbatim from his previous work. The editor immediately
contacted the author and asked for an explanation.
• The author admitted to using the previous work as a template for the new
paper, but claimed that it was done unintentionally and was due to poor
citation practices. The editor requested that the author provide evidence to
support this claim.
• Upon review of the evidence provided by the author, the editor determined
that the plagiarism was intentional and that the author had also
misrepresented the data in the paper to support his findings. The editor
immediately retracted the paper and informed the author that he would be
reported to COPE.

COPE Response:
• COPE received the report and initiated an investigation into the matter.
After reviewing the evidence provided by the journal editor, COPE
determined that the author had committed serious ethical violations
and recommended that he be banned from publishing in any COPE
member journals for a period of three years.
• COPE also recommended that the author be required to undergo ethics
training and that the institution where the research was conducted
conduct an investigation into the matter.

Lessons Learned:
• This case highlights the importance of maintaining ethical standards in
scientific research and publication. Plagiarism and misrepresentation
can have serious consequences, not only for the author but also for the
entire scientific community.
• Publishers, editors, and reviewers must remain vigilant in detecting
and reporting any suspected ethical violations. COPE provides
guidance and support in handling such cases and promotes the highest
standards of integrity in scientific research and publication.

World Association of Medical
Editors (WAME)
• Established in 1995.WAME is a non profit voluntary
association of editors of peer-reviewed medical journals
from countries throughout the world who seek to foster
international cooperation among and education of
medical journal editors.
• Membership in WAME is free and all decision making
editors of peer-reviewed medical journal are eligible to
join.
• WAME has more than 1830 members representing
more than 1000 journals from 92 countries(data on
2007)

Points to remember
• NON PROFIT Voluntary Association
• Peer-reviewed medical Journals
• International cooperation
• Membership is free

Goals of WAME
• To encourage research on the principles and
practice of medical editing.
• Facilitate Worldwide cooperation and
communication among editor and peer reviewed
medical journals.
• To improve editorial standards, to promote
professionalism in medical editing through
education, self-criticism and self-regulation.
• To publish original, important documented peer-
reviewed articles on clinical laboratory research.

Cont..
• To provide continuing education in basic and clinical
sciences to support informed clinical decision making.
• To forecast the important issues, problems and trend
in medicine and public health, including political,
philosophic, ethical, environmental economic
historical and cultural issues
• To enable physicians to remain informed in one or
more areas of medicines.
• To improve public health internationally by improving
the quality of medical care disease prevention and
medical research.

Goals of WAME
• To foster responsible and balanced on
controversial issue and polices affecting medical.
• To achieve the highest level of ethical medical
journalism.
• To promote self audit and scientifically
supported improvement in the editing process. A
medical journals has a social responsibility to
improve the human condition and safeguard the
integrity.

Principles Of Transparency
• Website - A journal s’ website , including the text that
contains, shall demonstrate that care has been taken to
ensure high ethical and professional standards.
• Name of journal-The journal name shall be unique and not
be one that is easily confused with other journal or that
might mislead potentional authors and readers.
• Ownership and management-Information about the
ownership and management of a journal shall be clearly
indicated on the journal’s websites.
• Governing the body-Journals shall have editorial boards or
other governing bodies whose members are recognized in
the subject areas included within the journals scope.

Cont..
• Editorial team/contact information: Journals
shall provide the full names and affiliation of the
journal’s editors on the journal websites as well
as contact information for the editorial office
,including a full address.
• Copyright and licensing: The policy for
copyright shall be clearly states in the author
guidelines and the copyright holder named on all
published articles.
• Author fees: Any fees or charges that are
required for manuscript processing and publishing
materials in the journal shall be clear.
• Process for identification of and dealing with
allegations of research misconduct.

Professionals code of Research for
Medical Journal editor
• Use rigorous evaluation and peer review in publishing a scholarly
work that been ethically conducted is methodologically source and
clearly completely reported.
• Pursue life long learning and teaching both formal and informal
and recognize the need to remedy knowledge deficits themselves
and the coeditors.
• Establish and disseminate clear and transparent policies for editors,
authors and reviewers identify potential conflict of interest.
• Ensure the journal is editorially independent from publishers,
owners, cooperation ,industry and other groups that could present
protentional conflict of interest.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST
• Conflict of interest is defined as a situation in which a person in a position of trust
that requires person to exercise judgment also has personal or professional interests
and obligation of sort that might interfere with exercise of judgment (Poff 2012)[1]
• Here primary interest conflicts secondary interest.[2]
• As a result of Conflict of Interest persons individual interest compromises towards
his actions.[3]

CONFLICT OF INTEREST TYPES
Depending upon nature of work and business interest it may be divided in
to [4,5]
• Personal vs Professional Conflicts
• Financial Conflicts & Non Financial Conflicts
• Conflicting Responsibility
• Conflicting Organization's
• Conflict of Roles

CASE STUDY
• Shanghai Company A sells products in two modes, direct sales and indirect
sales by distribution. Employee Li joined Company A in April 2007 as sales
manager, in charge of both direct and indirect sales. [6]
• In March 2016, after receiving an anonymous whistleblowing and a thorough
investigation, Company A found that Li established Company B as one of the
stockholders with a registered business scope partially coincident with that of
Company A. Also, according to the registration information of Company B,
Zhang is its operating director and her husband is one of the stockholders of
Company B. After verification, Zhang is the legal representative of a distributor
of Company A, named Company C. By on-site investigation, Company A found
that the actual office address of Company B and C is in a same place. Company
A also found that Li referred the clients from whom he got inquiries and sales
opportunities to Company C, and Company C made the deal with the clients
eventually.
• In view of this circumstance, Company A terminated the employment contract
in May 2016 on the grounds that Li
• 1) failed to declare that he was engaged in competitive business and caused
conflict of interest (establishing Company B),
• 2) flew orders, causing conflict of interest and substantial economic loss to the
employer. Li thought the termination is illegal and initiated the labor
arbitration.

CASE STUDY(Contd 1)
According to Li’s viewpoints: [6]
• 1) Company A only requested for conflict-of-interest declaration during on-
board process in year 2007 while Company B was established in year 2013.
The declaration made in year 2007 are all authentic information and after that
Company A did not require further declaration;
• 2) Although the registered business scope of Company A and B partially
coincide, Company B is a small company with a registered capital of U$500,000
and has no capacity to compete with Company A, a world-renowned company.
• 3) Due to customer requirements for multi-party price comparison, Li
exchanged the information of clients and their requests to the distributors. The
ultimate goal is to win more orders for Company A. Also, Company A did not
ban him from helping distributors selling products.
• 4) Company A did not get any harm or loss in this whole case.

CASE STUDY(Contd 2)
According to viewpoints of Company A: [6]
• 1) The declaration form has requested for in-time further declaration of any
changed information, but Li did not inform the employer of such information;
• 2) According to the agreement signed between Company A and Company C,
Company A needs to pay rebates to Company C based on its sales revenue. In
another word, direct sales mode gains more profits for Company A than
distribution sales mode in same sales revenue. Judging from sales practices or
thinking of maximizing profits, it was wrongful conduct for Li to refer the sales
opportunity to distributor;
• 3) Also based on the agreement, the aim for Company A to set up distribution
sales mode, is to expand more sales channels, promote sales revenue by
sacrificing a portion of the profits (rebates). It is clearly contrary to the
fundamental purpose of Company A as market expansion if potential clients of
direct sales mode in Company A are referred to the distributors;
• 4) Li and Zhang co-founded Company B and Zhang is an interested person and
have a special relationship with Li. Due to such special relationship, Li ignored
the interest of Company A and referred the potential direct sales business to
Company C, which clearly constituted a violation of labor disciplines and
royalty obligations.

CASE STUDY(Contd 3)
Questions [6]
• 1) Is there any conflict of interest or competitive relationship between
Company A and B?
• 2) Is there any conflict of interest between Li and Distributor C?
• 3) Is there a conflict of interest between Reseller C and Company A?
• 4) Is employer’s loss an accountability requirement for misconduct regarding
conflict of interest?

CASE STUDY(Contd 4)
Answer [6]
• 1) Is there any conflict of interest or competitive relationship between
Company A and B?
• In judicial practices, when judging competitive relationship, first step is to
check whether the registered business scope of two companies coincides,
regardless of their registered capital; second step is to check whether the two
companies actually run the same business. Company B though with less
registered capital, its business scope partially coincides with that of Company
A, which is a solid evidence for conflict of interest, even competitive
relationship. Although in year 2007 Company B has not been established,
according to declaration form, “whether running or investing a business
conflicting with interest of the company in the name of employee him/herself
or the relatives” falls into the scope of the circumstances need declaration.
Furthermore, it is requested to keep the company informed of any information
update. Therefore, Li breached his duty of conflict-of-interest declaration.

CASE STUDY(Contd 5)
Answer [6]
• 2. Is there any conflict of interest between Li and Distributor C?
• In general, whether a third party is an interest party of employee or such
interaction need to be reported shall be subject to such interaction will affect
the employee's neutral judgment in the performance of his/her duties. In this
case, Li invested in Company B when serving as sales manager of Company A,
while another shareholder of Company B is Zhang's spouse. Zhang herself is
the operating director of Company B, and is also the legal representative of
Distributor C. Company B shared office address with Distributor C. It is obvious
that Li and Company B, Distributor C and Zhang has associated relationship.
Such relationship has gone beyond the proper limit which a sales staff and
distributor should keep, and is enough to affect employee’s judgment. However
Li did not make any declaration to Company A during his employment.

CASE STUDY(Contd 6)
Answer [6]
• 3. Is there a conflict of interest between Reseller C and Company A?
• Ostensibly there is a cooperative relationship between Distributor C and
Company A, however in this case, whether there is a conflict of interest shall be
subject to if there is any tradeoff for interest between the two Companies.
Distributor C as a distributor of Company A has the same interest orientation
with Company A. However Company A also has its direct-sales department and
its own clients. If the products are sold in distribution-sales mode, Company A
has to pay rebates to the distributor in accordance with the agreement. Li
referred the potential clients of direct-sales mode to Distributor C and
promoted the transactions between them, resulting in the loss of direct sales
business and costing Company A rebates additionally. Obviously it is
detrimental to Company A's interests. Thus, there is conflict of interest in some
extent between Company A and Distributor C in this case.

CASE STUDY(Contd 7)
Answer [6]
• 4. Is employer’s loss an accountability requirement for misconduct regarding
conflict of interest?
• The harm of conflict of interest to the enterprise may be a direct economic loss,
but it may also be potential threats or loss of opportunities. Since the latter is
quite difficult to prove and identify, in order to avoid the situation that no
discipline can be taken, usually enterprises will stipulate that the existence or
failure to report conflict of interest is a violation to the labor disciplines,
without emphasis on employer’s actual loss caused by such misconduct. Of
course, if the enterprise has already specified in the labor disciplines that
actual loss shall be a determining factor for misconduct and disciplinary
actions, namely accountability requirement, it must be obeyed and
implemented when handling conflict of interest. In this case, labor disciplines
of Company A clearly state that “serious violation of discipline: failure to
declare his/her engagement in business with conflict of interest and causing
actual loss to the company”, which indicated that actual loss of Company A is
one of the accountability requirements for Li’s behavior. As analyzed above,
Li’s referral of potential clients of direct-sales mode to distributor did cause
loss of Company A, and thus the court determined that Li committed serious
violations. If Li only invested in Company B without other related shareholders
but did not make any referral of clients, the loss of Company A and thus Li’s
serious violation would be hard to prove.

SUGGESTIONS
To mitigate conflict of interest's in case study [6]
• Establish clear rules regarding conflict of interest.
• Training on internal policies regarding conflict of interest .
• Multiple channel investigation shall be made .
• Recusal
• Disclosure
• Removal

CONCLUSION
• Conflict of interest can be avoided to some extend by taking
out the personal part and enforcing strict code of conduct.

REFERENCES
• [1] Poff D (2012) Research funding and Academic freedom. In: Chadwick
R (ed) Encyclopedia of applied ethics, vol 3. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp
797–804.
• [2] https://selfstudyhistory.com/2015/09/13/conflict-of-interest-gs-
paper-4/
• [3] https://www.aspireias.com/uploads/paidminstest/35.pdf
• [4] https://www.civilsdaily.com/mains/examine-the-causative-factors-
and-circumstances-that-lead-to-a-conflict-of-interest-for-a-public-
servant-and-suggest-ways-to-resolve-them-15-marks/
• [5]https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/conflict-of-interest/
• [6]https://https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=007533d0-
5d5b-4195-8be3-b068cedf98ec

What is Publication misconduct?
To improve the quality of academic journals, respect and maintain
academic publishing norms, better play the role of academic journals in
regulating scientific research behavior and purifying the academic
environment, and promote the construction of scientific ethics and
scientific research integrity.
To respect the intellectual property rights of others and uphold the
standards for academic publishing, policies and Grammarly standards
for publication misconduct.
This standard summarizes the types of misconduct that may be
involved in the authors of academic journal papers, and provides basic
defining principles and standards by listing the main manifestations of
various types of misconduct.

Publication misconduct includes
• Plagiarism,
• Fabrication,
• Falsification,
• Inappropriate authorship,
• Duplicate submission/multiple submissions,
• Overlapping publication, and
• Salami publication.

-
Plagiarism
Directly publish other people's or existing ideas, viewpoints, data,
images, research methods, text expressions, etc., without citation or
explanation, in your own name; excessively cite the content of other
people's published literature.

Fabrication
Fabrication is the practice of
making up data or results
without having performed
relevant research.
Falsification
Falsification is the practice of
changing data or results
intentionally such that
misleading conclusion is
drawn(NOT AUTHORIZED).

Inappropriate authorship
• Byline does not correspond to actual contribution to the paper.
• Authorship is not appropriately assigned based on the author's
contributions.
• Omitting authors who have fulfilled authorship criteria and
including authors who have not in an 'honorary' capacity.
Duplicate submission/multiple submissions
The same paper or multiple papers with only minor differences (such
as different titles, keywords, abstracts, author rankings, author
affiliations, or a small amount of content in the text of the papers) are
submitted to multiple journals, or within the agreed or statutory time
limit Submit to other journals.

Overlapping publication
• Without proper explanation, a large number of content in the paper has
been repeated in the paper.
• The practice of publishing a paper overlaps substantially with one
already published.
Salami publication
The research results that are essentially based on the same topic, data, and
information, which could have been published at one time, are split into
several publishable units and published as multiple papers.

Small Exercise
A junior researcher published an article in a PUBMED indexed journal. When
senior researcher asked the junior researcher for raw data of his research and he
was unable to provide the data- it is called?
Swasthika submitted a manuscript to two journals simultaneously. The decision
of the editorial boards of both journals was acceptance with minor revision. She
asked her colleagues for advice. Finally she emailed the editor in-chief of one of
the journals and withdrew her submission. The article was published in the other
journal. It is called-?
In a class[Swasthika-topper, Raghul-weaker]Teacher gave an assignment and told
to complete the assignment within two weeks , Raghul was spending his entire
week with friends and family , Swasthika has completed her assignment within
two days. So after two weeks ,when teacher asked to submit the assignment
Raghul has copied entire assignment from Swasthika and gave his name in the
assignment this is called?
A paper was accepted and published in journal A which dealt with a patients with
an unusual respiratory pathogen. A similar paper had been published in a US
journal B a few months before. It dealt with more or less the same patients (a few
more had been added) and provided some extra secondary outcome data but
with the same conclusions. It is called

Publication Ethics & Its Violations
Authorship/ Contributor ship

Publication Ethics & Its Violations
 Publishing research work plays a vital role in
the life of scientists.
 Publication ethics are set of standards that
needs to be obeyed by the writer while
translating his work into manuscript in order to
ensure high quality scientific publications
1.

 When a student joins a group as a researcher,
he/she is expected to follow three sets of
obligations
 Honor the trust that the research mentor
or the university administrators
 Discover or invent something new
 Do something useful for the society.

Ethical Violations Or Three “Cardinal Sins” Of
Scientific Misconduct, FFP — Fabrication,
Falsification, And Plagiarism.
Research fraud :
• Fabrication :Making up research data and
results
• Falsification: Manipulating research
materials, images, data, equipment, or
processes. Falsification includes changing or
omitting data or results in such a way that the
research is not accurately represented.

Plagiarism: when one author deliberately uses another's
work without permission, credit, or acknowledgment
Plagiarism has varying different levels of severity,
such as:
 How much of someone's work was taken–a few lines,
paragraphs, pages, the full article?
 What was copied–results, methods, or introduction
section?
Plagiarism takes different forms :
1. Literal Copying
2. Substantial copying
3. Paraphrasing
4. Text-recycling

• Literal Copying: Reproducing a work word for
word, in whole or in part.
• Substantial copying : This can include research
materials, processes, tables, or equipment
• Paraphrasing : Reproducing someone else's ideas
while not copying word for word,
• Text-recycling :Paraphrasing Reproducing
portions of an author's own work in a paper, and
resubmitting it for publication as an entirely new
paper

Ethical violations cannot be hidden. Sooner or later they will get
exposed
CASE STUDY 1 : Nobel Laureate in Medicine
Prof. David Baltimore who published a paper in the
journal Cell Press with Title, “Altered repertoire of
endogenous immunoglobulin gene expression in
transgenic mice containing a rearranged μ heavy chain
gene” (Weaver, et al., 1986). When Morgot O’Toole
(1991),a researcher in the same laboratory, tried to
reproduce their work, O’Toole could not reproduce the
same results and accused the corresponding author, Dr.
Imanishi-Kari of fabricating the data In 1991, Dr.
Imanishi-Kari was accused of falsifying data and it was
recommended that she be barred from receiving research
grants for 10 years. Several books have covered the
Baltimore affair.

CASE STUDY 2
Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)
There are many such instances of violation of ethical
norms in Indian Science from the recent past. About 130
papers published in peer-reviewed journals by scientists
from CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research
have been declared to be problematic. A chief scientist
from the institute is involved in forty such papers. In the
Pubpeer report, about 35 papers published from CSIR-
Central Drug Research Institute have images that have
been manipulated and/or duplicated. The Pubpeer website
also reports 37 papers with manipulated and duplicated
images from CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology.

Authorship And Conflicts
Author: Generally considered to be an individual who has
made a significant intellectual contribution to the study
Three types of authorship are considered unacceptable:
• "Ghost" authors, who contribute substantially but
are not acknowledged (often paid by commercial
sponsors);
• "Guest" authors, who make no discernible
contributions, but are listed to help increase the
chances of publication;
• "Gift" authors, whose contribution is based solely
on a tenuous affiliation with a study

Some of the responsibilities of Authorship
Originality: Novelty of the work must plays the important role
Good record keeping: The author must maintain all the records of
the work done right from the survey.
Integrity and honesty: Work that needs to be published should be
novel and the author should maintain integrity and honesty to his
work.
Transparency: published clearly without hiding any other
information.
Respect for property rights: Rule breaking must not be done by
the researcher
Copy right agreements: while publishing the work, under any
circumstances should not break the agreements of the publications
and authorships.
Responsibility: when published a work, the author must take all
the responsibility for the consequences of the publications.

Contributor Ship
Contributor Ship: Contributors can be classified as
intellectual (one who gives ideas or helps in writing), practical
(who helps in performing experimental) and financial (who
helps in funding the research).
 The writer must know the key difference between the author
and contributor while writing the names in the author list
 Contributors must be acknowledged in the preface of the
paper.
 The supporting process of article writers in obtaining scientific
results

Case Studies & Solutions
1. A PhD Scholar complained to the Dean of doctoral
programs of his university that his name is not included in
the author list of the article that was prepared using the
experimental results of his thesis. Then a senior
researcher involved in the thesis claimed that he has
forgotten to include the name of his co-author in the
author list.
In such cases COPE solves the issue regarding
authorship issues. Addition or omitting of an author can
be requested to the publishing journal. The journal will
seek the consent of all the authors and correction would
be done if all authors agree to it.

The Complaints and Appeals
• The authors have the right to compliant and ask
explanation if they identify any misconduct in any
applicable policies and ethical guidelines.
• The rejection of a paper, the author may appeal to
the editor.
• Authors have the right to appeal and Editor’s
decision on their article.
• All appeals are sent to the journal’s Editor-in-Chief,
who will assess your article and the details of the
peer review process before the final decision.

Making and Handling Compliant
• Complaints may relate to a failure of process or a severe
misjudgment. They may also relate to author or reviewer
misconduct.
• Complaints may be made by anyone, including authors,
reviewers and readers. Complaints should be emailed
• If your Complaints related to a specific article, please include
the title , the manuscript ID number if it is already published.
• Complaints will be dealt with by editorial staff wherever
possible, with reference to our policies and guidelines, but will
be escalated to the editor where necessary.
• The editor has the right to then consult with any third party
over the issue, and make a final decision. That final decision
shall be binding, and the matter shall be deemed closed.

Appeals
• Appeals against the Editor’s decision only
under highly specific circumstances and
usually only where a clear breach of policy
can be demonstrated.
• Appeals include:
• Rejected manuscripts
• Retracted articles
• Rejection of revised articles

Appeals Process
• Any appeals need to made by email within two
weeks of the Editor's decision. Along with the
detailed explanation and include supporting
information. Acknowledge receipt of your appeal
within five working days and it will be passed to the
editors for consideration. Wherever possible, the
appeal will be considered by an associate editor who
as not involved recommendation to reject the appeal.
• All appeals will resolve within four weeks. The
editor’s decision is final.

Case text (Anonymised):
• Recently, Journal X received a letter to the editor based on an
article published in another journal about 8 years previously.
The editors of Journal X believe this letter is important to their
readers. The original article was a seminal paper which
changed practice. However, a group of authors challenged
some of the data published in this trial in a subsequent review
published about 7 years ago and asked for further analyses.
The original authors of the trial paper said they would release
the data. However, since that time, the first author has died,
and access to the data from any of the institutions or the rest
of the authors has not been possible.
• The journal that published the original paper feels this is not
within their remit because it is outside the time limit of
considering letters to the editor. The editors of Journal X are
keen to publish this letter and we have had legal advice which
stated that it is important enough to warrant publication. The
letter has been reviewed by at least five expert referees in the
field who all recommend publication but after seeking legal
advice

COPE Advice:
We assume from your question that this has been attempted
but without a clear resolution. In such case, we agree that publishing
the letter to the editor after seeking legal advice would seem to be
appropriate. Given the length of time since publication of the original
article, publishing the piece as a perspectives article, rather than a
letter to the editor, is a good solution. The editor could send a courtesy
note to the editor of the journal that published the original article to
advise them of the publication of the letter. Also, informing readers
why the letter was published in journal X, and not the original journal,
would help readers understand the decision making process
regarding why the letter was published in a different journal. The
editors might consider writing an accompanying editorial to address
the integrity issues.

Predatory Publishers and
Journals

Meaning of Predatory Publishing
• Predatory publishing is generally defined as for-profit open access
journal publication of scholarly articles without the benefit of peer
review by experts in the field or the usual editorial oversight of the
journals in question
• The journals have no standards and no quality control and frequently
publish within a very brief period of time while claiming that articles
are peer-reviewed.
• Those who publish in these journals are frequently invited to serve on
editorial boards or become editors with no reference to relevant
experience to assume such roles

Driving Forces
• Publish or Perish : For many academics on Career progression
depends on research papers they publish
• Technology: easy to set up websites, spamming thousands of
potential authors and receiving electronic Payments
• Inexperience: working online without access to expertise to
distinguish bogus impact factors
• Exploitation of open access model: pay to publish model
misused

Predatory Publishing…
• Jeffrey Beall, a librarian coined the word in 2010.
• Studied, followed and maintained lists of predatory journals
until 2017
• Consulted COPE-Conduct for Journal Publishers;
• Cabells https://www2.cabells.com/ maintains blacklist and
white list to help the researchers to help the researchers
find right journals for publication.

Characteristics of Predatory
Journals
False or misleading information :
• Fake impact factors https://beallslist.net/#update
• incorrect addresses https://beallslist.net/misleading-metrics/
• misrepresentation of editorial board
• false claims of indexing, misleading claims about peer review
Deviation from best editorial and publication practices:
• Website is not designed professionally. Has Grammar and spelling
mistakes.
• Solicit manuscripts though e- mails.
• Publish manuscripts within a month of receiving.
Example :https://iarjset.com/

Characteristics of Predatory
Journals
Lack of transparency
• Do not have proper editorial boards. Names may be fictitious.
• Charge APC, but do not follow standards of scholarly publishing.
• Do not have any preservation policy.

Harmful effects of Predatory
Publishing
• Enhances misconduct in research
• Monetary Costs for the author/Institution
• No assurance for longevity of the paper
• Delisting of the journal by indexing services
• The fraudulent research and erroneous findings get into
scientific literature and circulation
• The trust of the public in research and science is wasted.

Predatory Journal Checklist
• Read previous issues of the target journal articles have many errors,
typos, and are of poor quality, that is also a red flag that you’re looking
at a predatory scientific journal.
• Look into the journal’s “Editorial Board.” Often, fake journals will list
scholars without their authorization. Often predatory journals will brag
about membership in reputable organizations like DOAJ , COPE and
OASPA among others. Check their actual membership by contacting the
named organization to confirm membership of the journal.

Predatory Journal Checklist
• Verify contact information. If the country-code for the phone number
doesn’t match the stated location of the journal, be careful. Also look up any
address that they provide. Is it legitimate?
• Investigate their peer review process. Predatory scientific journals often
promise extremely rapid (and unrealistic) timelines for peer review
processes. Read over their peer review policy, and look for any red flags.
• Review the journal’s website thoroughly. If there is the use of poor-quality
grammar and spelling errors, that’s often the giveaway for a predatory
journal. Look also at their fee structure. If fees are requested prior to the
manuscript being accepted, this is also a sign of a predatory journal.

Is the journal listed in
common lists, such as DOAJ,
Scopus, WoS, ABDC, AJG?
No
Yes
Is the journal a member of
COPE ?
Likely safe journal,
proceed to next
step.
Possibly predatory,
proceed to next
step.
Yes
No
Possibly
predatory,
proceed to
next step.
Does the journal meet any of the following
characteristics?
- Lack of transparency
- Lack of information on the contact
details of the publisher or on article
processing charges
- Inaccurate Information
- Consider checking where the journal
reports to be indexed and verifying this
is accurate information
- False information
- May promote a fake impact factor on
its website or false indexing
- Invited via Suspicious E-mail
- Grammar/spelling mistakes, received
multiple times, unclear sender
Yes
No
May be safe
→investigate
further
Most likely
predatory.
Journal is most
likely safe because
of the membership
requirements of
COPE DOAJ
Start
Here
How to Identify Predatory Journal?

Publication Ethics Guide

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