Editors' Forum

We are interested in finding out editors' views on the various issues documented in Editors' Update. We have created the Editors' Virtual Forum to enable you to have your say. In each issue, a topic is nominated for discussion and we ask you to share your thoughts with other editors.

Unethical publishing behaviour can be avoided if:

A) Authors only to submit their papers in compliance with, say, Science Technical and Medical publishing industry guidelines on unethical behaviour.

B) Universities ensure that papers authored by their researchers are not fraudulent, i.e they have their own regulations.

C) If fraud is detected after publication then the publisher is to blame. After all, the peer review process is the added value that should prevent ‘incorrect’ papers from slipping through.

D) Any combination of the above options.

Email your answer and rationale to editorsupdate@elsevier.com

Answers and rationales will be posted at the end of the relevant article and on the Forum page. Each reply published will display the contributor's name and journal.

Note: Elsevier reserves the right to edit comments.

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Hans Kort, Elsevier
The publisher in economics suggested to us to post this reference to an article on plagiarism in economics:

Whose line is it? Plagiarism in Economics; Enders, W. and Hoover, G.A.; Journal of Economics Literature, 2004, published by the Americal Economic Association.

5) Ian Marshall, Editor, Journal of Composite Structures

Although the legal position seems to be relatively straightforward, the idea that the Peer Review process should weed out any instances of plagiarism has an obvious flaw. The helpful souls who assist in the process are not expected to be infallible, they are simply "experts" in a relevant area. However diligent they may be regarding publications in their area, it would be naive to expect a knowledge of all relevant publications in all modes of publication. Happily, problems of plagiarism are few and far between!


4)  Steve Krikler, Editor-in-Chief, Injury  (Response to Issue 10 forum article)

As Editor-in-Chief of a journal, I feel a responsibility for the standard of English that we publish.

It would be good if Elsevier did this in-house, which is implied in answer B, but I see maintaining standards as part of an editor's role.


3) Desirée L. Cole, Principal Editor-Plant Pathology and Nematology, Crop Protection

I recently experienced and example of unethical publishing behaviour where the authors had submitted the same Manuscript to three journals.   I was alerted  by an observant referee who had seen the already published article in a journal and whose colleague had also received the same manuscript to review for another journal.

Whilst it is not the duty of the reviewer to check on ethics, they are the people most likely to pick up such occurrences because of their involvement in the subject under review.


2)  Marshall A. Lichtman, Editor-in-Chief, Blood Cells, Molecules and Diseases

B and C are quite inaccurate and their formulation suggests that whoever proposed these items knows nothing about the causes and mechanisms of fraud in science.

B) is quite inaccurate. Academic centers have mechanisms for investigating fraud after it is suspected but they have no special mechanisms to prevent fraud from occurring.

 C) is illogical.  If fraud is committed it is the perpetrators fault and no one else's. Peer review is largely ineffective and should not be considered a police function. Peer review is a mechanism to try to assure that the research makes a useful addition to the body of knowledge but has a very high rate of type one and type two errors.


1) Ian Stolerman,Co-Editor, Drug and Alcohol Dependence

I have been reading with interest your special issue on publishing ethics. This is a valuable contribution and I am delighted to see Elsevier taking on the task.

I would like to suggest an addition to the list of society links at the foot of the page called "Ethics Explained". This is the International Society of Addiction Journal Editors (ISAJE).  Please see  isaje.net and click through to Publishing Ethics for their Statement of Purpose.