I received a phone call from the first Author (A) of a case report published in our journal in 2005, who informed us that he had received a letter from an Author (B) of a research letter which had been published in another journal in 2000, stating that 12–15 sentences from the research letter had been copied in the case report.
Having compared the papers, about 50% of the introduction (the whole of one paragraph and 60% of another), about eight sentences from the midsection, and the entire conclusion from the research letter have been used in the 2005 case report. The layout of a table in the case report is also similar to the one published in the research letter. No data have been copied and we have been reassured by Author A that the data are genuine.
作者写信给作者B公司道歉ident. Author A phoned me again to say that Author B had requested that the case report be withdrawn from our journal. At no time has Author B communicated directly with me.
Following discussions with his/her Director of Research and Education, Author A had been advised that the best solution was to withdraw the case report voluntarily. Author A wrote to me requesting formal withdrawal of the case report. However, before I received this letter, Author A telephoned again to say that having taken legal advice he wished to retract this request and leave it with me to decide on the appropriate course of action.
The journal subsequently received a letter from the Director of Research & Education at Author A’s institution summarising the situation and informing us that Author A has been asked to step down from some of his responsibilities while his other publications and research activities are investigated. In this letter, it was also pointed out that most of the discussion in the 2005 case report had been duplicated from a review article published previously in our journal by Author A (sole author).
Our journal operates in an area of medicine which is very close knit and as Editor, I personally know both Author A and, to some extent, Author B, which is the main reason for submitting this case to COPE for independent evaluation and recommendation. I would be very grateful for your advice.
As the author is being investigated by his institution, there is little more that the editor can do in this respect until the results of the investigation are available. It is up to the institution to confirm whether or not the case report is genuine. If it is found that the case report is not genuine, then it must be retracted. If the case report is genuine, then the editor should publish either an expression of concern about plagiarism or a letter of apology from the author. The Forum suggested finding out if one or both of the authors were involved in the plagiarism. The Forum noted that it is important that the published paper, if genuine, is linked to some form of formal correction, which could be either an expression of concern of a letter of apology.
I confirmed independently that the case was genuine and wrote an “expression of concern” that will be published in the October issue of my journal. The advice provided by COPE was very helpful in resolving this issue.