As editor, I am reluctant to have the second author remain on the manuscript, especially given the fact that he may have done less on the manuscript than he originally said and may not even qualify for authorship according to the ICMJE guidelines. The first author agrees with this, but she is concerned that he may take litigious action against her, the university where she works, or the journal.
COPE论坛的问题
Should the journal reject the manuscript? Is it unsalvageable at this point?
The editor raised the issue that this paper, because it is interesting, a timely topic, and has undergone peer review and revisions, and copyediting, might be published in a predatory journal so it was fortuitous that the issue was caught prior to publication.
Journal A is dedicated to communication about practical treatments related directly to patient and personal experiences. These ongoing discussions have been part of this specific medical profession for the past 50 years and journal A is a platform for these discussions.
As there are 120 cases, are there also 120 authors? If there are many authors, it may be easy to anonymise the cases, especially if the authors could be added in alphabetical order to help disguise identities. Otherwise, it is difficult to anonymise the data and retain essential elements for learning purposes. A suggestion was to publish one case per issue, deidentifying the data and to make all 120 presenters (or however many there are) the author(s). Another suggestion was to have a recurring column in a journal that has an ethics committee, who would review the cases and make necessary changes for protecting subjects’ identities. The journal could also seek institutional review of the cases to ensure that blinding was sufficient.
The Forum noted that changing the data is not acceptable unless that is clearly indicated in the text; if the case is a composite, this must also be stated. The reason being that researchers might be interested in doing composites of these cases, which would be based on false data unless the original cases are clearly labelled as composite or fictional scenarios.
We disagree with the actions of the researcher and his enforcement of copyright on the tool. We are currently only publishing articles that have a license permitted by the scale’s developer because we do not want to be sued or have to retract the articles.
The editor communicated the decision to author A and eventually informed the individual that the journal would not enter into further correspondence regarding this matter. The editor considers the case closed.
研究人员已经在我们的杂志上发表了一篇论文using a scale published in 2008. She wrote to the scale developer in 2014/2015 at least three times (emails are on file) before the start of the project, but the scale developer did not respond despite repeated email reminders. No indication of the need for a license was received. In 2017, when the researcher published the paper using the above scale, she was contacted by a person claiming that he was representing the scale's developer and asked for a retrospective license and license fee, and threatened that if the she did not apply for a retrospective license and pay the license fee, she may need to take legal responsibility and retract the published paper. He also said that if she does not pay the fee, then the team’s lawyer would contact her. The name of the lawyer is given, with a gmail account. No firm name or any other information is provided. The researcher has searched the internet and found examples of this person asking other people to apply for a retrospective license and receiving money.
One option might be to publish an erratum, with an acknowledgement of the scale developer and with details of the scale. Perhaps if the scale developer just wants some form of credit, this may be a solution to preventing legal action.
作者Virginia Barbour, Muhammad Irfan, Deborah Poff and Michael Wise on behalf of COPE Council 版本12016年12月 如何引用 科普委员会。期刊确保同意发表医疗病例报告的最佳实践。版本1。2016年12月https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.6
• Such debates must be modified with the patient's interest in mind. •在同意书中加入一句话,告知患者发表后辩论的可能性。 • Possibly include a disclaimer on such debates, informing about the limits of such debate? •是否可能在作者的辩论指南中包括关于患者观点的提示?bob官方app
COPE论坛的问题
•让读者猜测患者的诊断、治疗选择等是否合乎道德? •论坛成员是否在各自的期刊上进行过类似的讨论? • Are the steps taken/planned reasonable? •论坛是否就我们今后如何避免此类问题提出了其他建议?
While an ethical framework is needed, the journal also has a responsibility to encourage debate, but in a sensitive and cautious way. For example, this can be an opportunity to allow input from people with whom the patient might not ever have access. The framework within which this happens is important.
Since many journals have international authors, should the onus be on editors if there is lack of clarity to confirm the norms elsewhere. Do we need universal standards for issues like this?