Barriers to investigating and reporting research misconduct: prioritising publication integrity

Bouter’s editorial1 on the UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO) report Barriers to investigating and reporting research misconduct2 highlights protecting patients from consequences of research misconduct.Waiting for publishers to correct publications affected by misconduct or errors can take years. In the meantime, these papers influence clinical guidelines and patient care. Delays have been so concerning that the 2023 House of Commons’ Science, Innovation, and Technology Committee’s Reproducibility and research integrity report stated that publishers “should commit to timely publication of research error corrections and retractions . . . this process should not take longer than two months.”3Neither UKRIO nor Bouter highlight the pivotal role that the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) plays in guiding the response to complaints about publications. COPE is a UK charity, almost wholly funded by the international publishing industry, with few trustees and council members independent of publishing and no patient representation. COPE has no regulatory role.COPE…
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