JOURNAL editors and publishers are not doing enough to limit misconduct and fraud, according to a survey published on Tuesday by COPE, the UK’s Committee on Publication Ethics.
Just 118 of COPE’s 346 member journals replied to the survey. Two-thirds had no anti-fraud safeguards, 60 per cent had no complaints procedure, and half did not publish author guidelines.
Fraudulent research can slip through even if journals are alert to misconduct. “If the fraud is clever enough, it is likely that referees and editors will not notice it,” says Linda Miller, the US executive editor of Nature.
Harvey Marcovitch, chair…
