Hello,
Welcome to our September issue of Digest celebrating quality in peer review
It's Peer Review Week, with this year's theme Quality In Peer Review. This is now an anticipated time in the calendar for many of our members around the world and a number of events focus on issues rated to peer review and publication ethics and integrity.
As a long time editor of journals and books, I know well the variance of opinion on the importance of peer review. Anecdotally, we often hear skepticism among authors about the value of peer review and whether it is always objective and free from conflict of interest. As many of us who are editors can readily attest, many scholars take peer review very seriously and provide detailed and constructive feedback that helps to improve authors’ work and its contribution to the scholarly record.
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However, we also know that the quality of reviews are variable and the problem of recognition of this valuable service is frequently under-appreciated by the institutions that employ our reviewers.
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COPE Chair Deborah Poff
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WHEN THE PEER REVIEW SYSTEM GOES SIDEWAYS
The peer review system is complex and the results influence advancement of knowledge, patient care, policies, careers, future funding decisions, and more. The triad of individuals involved in this system, authors, editors and reviewers, all have important roles to play to make sure this system works. Some of these roles correspond to functions that affect the timeliness of review decisions, submission of a meaningful review, and clear communication of expectations of all of the participants. These are largely structural factors that support the peer review process and most of the time journal management and education about the peer review process can assure a smooth process.
Peer review is more likely to go sideways, to fail, due to ethical breaches by peer review participants.
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PEER REVIEW RESOURCES
Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers set out the basic principles and standards to which all peer reviewers should follow during the peer-review process in research publication. The aim has been to make them generic so that they can be applied across disciplines.
What to consider when asked to peer review a manuscript flowchart laying out the steps in the decision process that you might go through to decide whether or not you should accept the request.
How to spot potential manipulation of the peer review process infographic shows the features or patterns of activity to help editors recognise potential signs of peer review manipulation. Often it is the occurrence of these features in combination that may indicate a potential issue.
What to do if you Suspect Peer Review Manipulation is COPE's flowchart if peer review manipulation is discovered either during or after the peer review process.
55% of journal editors who took part in COPE's arts, humanities, and social sciences research study, said recognising and dealing with bias in peer review was an issue they'd encountered. Full findings of the research can be seen here.
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NEW AND UPDATED CASES
These cases were presented at the COPE face-to-face Forum on Thursday 1 August, at the INANE Conference in Nevada. The summarised cases with the advice given, and updates on previous cases, are now available on the COPE website.
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Why raw data isn't enough to ensure reproducibility, how researchers in Chile set out to validate author affiliations, and why systems are needed to filter out unethically conducted published research.
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Data and Reproducibility
On the topic of open data, providing access to raw data is not enough to ensure reproducibility. In this paper, authors propose a data reproducibility model and best practices.
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Allegations of Misconduct
Author affiliations on published articles are usually not verified through a regulated system. Researchers attempted to validate author affiliations in Scopus-indexed articles published in 2016.
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Ethical Oversight
As research outputs increase globally and technological advancements change the way it's conducted, systems are needed to filter out unethically conducted published research.
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READ FULL NEWS SUMMARY >
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PEER REVIEW WORKSHOP: NORWAY
26 NOVEMBER 2019
In the run up to the Munin conference on scholarly publishing, COPE is holding a pre-conference workshop on peer review for editors, expertly run by COPE Council members Howard Browman and Mirjam Curno. The workshop is at University of Tromsø, The Arctic University of Norway, campus Breivika.
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TOKYO UNIVERSITY & KYOTO PHARMACEUTICAL UNIVERSITY
1 October 2019
TOKYO & KYOTO, JAPAN
COPE council member Tracey Bretag will give two presentations on academic and research integrity in Japan, during which Tracey will speak about COPE guidance. These will be at Tokyo University on 'Academic integrity - why is it so important?' and at Kyoto Pharmaceutical University about 'Responsible conduct of research: principles, codes and practices'.
MORE INFORMATION >
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ISMTE EUROPEAN CONFERENCE
3 October 2019
OXFORD, UK
COPE council member Chris Graf will run a session ‘Change and constants at COPE’ on new ethical challenges facing journal editors. Attendees can save $50 by registering before 16 September.
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CHARLESTON CONFERENCE
4 - 8 November 2019
CHARLESTON, USA
COPE Chair, Deborah Poff, will be speaking about the publication ethics challenges in arts, humanities, and social sciences and what this means for librarians. Also in this session, giving different perspectives on the issues, are Jennie McMillan, Taylor and Francis, and Claire Sewell, Cambridge University Library.
MORE INFORMATION >
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PEER REVIEW WEEK
16 - 20 September 2019
It's Peer Review Week! #PeerRevWk19 #QualityInPeerReview
There are many ways you can get involved in Peer Review Week.
MORE INFORMATION >
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MEDICAL JOURNAL EDITORS SHORT COURSE
13 - 15 November 2019
OXFORD, UK
This international workshop is designed to help editors ensure their journals achieve the maximum impact with the best research.
MORE INFORMATION >
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COPE Digest Editors:
Deborah Kahn, Publishing Director, Taylor & Francis
Nancy C Chescheir, MD, Editor-in-Chief, Obstetrics and Gynecology
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