Welcome to the May issue of COPE Digest.

I am delighted to have this opportunity to introduce myself to the broad readership of the Digest as the new Chair-elect of COPE, a position I will hold for a year before I become Chair of COPE. COPE is entering a critical phase in its life. The organisation has expanded rapidly, so we need to focus on our strategic goals set out last year. This includes better communication with our members, an increase in the range of guidance we offer, expansion of membership in underrepresented areas (South America, India, and China), and a focus on embracing university members. With your support, and the diligent efforts of the COPE staff, I look forward to many exciting years ahead.

The focus of this month’s Digest is authorship. Criteria and guidelines for authorship across most specialties have a common set of minimal criteria: (1) substantial contribution to the work and (2) accountability for the work that was done and its presentation in a publication. Yet, despite this common understanding, authorship remains one of the most vexing issues in publications, where escalation can involve multiple individuals and institutions.

COPE published an Authorship discussion document in September last year, an update of “What constitutes authorship?”. Based on a review of Forum cases related to authorship, this document offers practical advice on addressing the most common issues around authorship. This is especially timely in light of the results from last year’s member survey and a recent study of the publishing ethics landscape for AHSS editors: both identified contribution and co-author claims as significant ethics issues. 

For those interested in understanding the behaviours of authors that most likely lead to disputes, take a look at Charon Pierson’s June 2019 presentation at the World Conference on Research Integrity. Charon presented an analysis of 134 authorship cases which found that some of the most prevalent behaviours included questionable changes to the author list after submission (27%); ghost, guest, or gift authorship (19%); and submission without the knowledge of one or more authors (19%), to name just a few.

DISCUSSION TOPIC: WHAT PEER REVIEW MEANS IN THE ARTS, HUMANITIES, AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

• Are there differences in gender and diversity issues in these disciplines in peer review from others?
• What mechanisms might be introduced to deal with language quality and inclusivity matters?
• Are standards of expertise different when addressing certain topics that have social, gender, transgender, race and ethnicity involved in the research?
• Are some topics off limits for some researchers? Whose problem is this?

LATEST PUBLICATION ETHICS NEWS

• Honorary and ghost authorship remain prominent types of unethical authorship and the incidence remains high worldwide. The authors describe the most effective means to cope with these issues.
• A review of retractions in medical sciences publications show that 65% result from misconduct, with plagiarism the most common type. Authorship and peer-review manipulation also contribute.
• A survey of users of Research Gate, a network for researchers to share papers, shows that the work being done by participants has shifted significantly since the pandemic. 

• 19-05 Duplicate submission and authorship dispute: What should the journal editors do to resolve the situation and how can they avoid it in future?
   
• 19-08 Authorship issue related to misleading action of one author: Should the journal reject the manuscript? Is it unsalvageable at this point?
   
• 19-09 Deceased author: After a manuscript was accepted, an author passed away before they could complete conflict of interest and copyright transfer documents. What can the editors do to ensure transparency?
   
• 19-14 Removal of an author: the author in question is uncontactable. What course of action does the #C0PEForum advise?
   
• 19-15 Authorship dispute during review process: A reviewer alerted the journal that a manuscript appeared to be the work of a researcher not listed as an author.

NEW MEMBERS

• The Association of Learned & Professional Society Publishers are hosting a webinar on new research assessment policies in China, 4 June 2020.
• The International Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP) Meeting will now be held by webinar on 16-18 June, 2020. 
• Medical editors annual short course, Oxford, UK, 11-13 November 2020.

COPE Digest Editor: