A corresponding author and two coauthors submitted a paper to our journal. The article was published after due process of reviewing etc. After publishing the paper, a student contacted us to say that the paper was totally derived from their Master's thesis. The journal's Research Ethics Committee heard the case and it was confirmed that the paper had been extracted from the thesis. All the authors listed on the article were ghost authors. The committee decided to retract the paper and publish it with the name of original author. However the original author is not willing to publish it in this journal.
Question for COPE Council
- Please guide us for the solution (withdrawal, retraction or any other)
Advice on this case is from a small number of COPE Council Members. Most cases on the COPE website are presented to the COPE Forum where advice is offered by a wider group of COPE Members and COPE Council Members. Advice on individual cases is not formal COPE guidance.
This seems to be a case primarily of plagiarism rather than ghost authorship. It seems clear that the named authors of the article are not the original authors and that the true author did not give permission for publication. In this case, the journal is correct to follow a decision to retract the article following the COPE guidelines, having given the named authors the opportunity to comment on the circumstances. It would not be appropriate to publish the paper with the name of the original author on it instead as this could be counter-plagiarism should any changes have been made to the original work. Furthermore, it would not have the consent of the original author. The retraction notice should refer to the authors as submitted so that there are no repercussions for the true author. The editor could also mention that the true author remains free to publish elsewhere and that they were not involved.
Another option is for the journal to consider complete removal of the paper, recognising that the true author had not given permission for publication in the journal or for the use of data/content/IP. Furthermore, they could be harmed either reputationally or financially, by pursuing the case.
The journal may also want to inform the institutions where the submitting authors are based (with the agreement of the student) and check whether they have any other submissions published or in progress in case these are also plagiarised. Finally, it would be worth investigating how the submitting authors accessed the thesis: are they from the same research team as the student, did they extract it from plagiarism-checking software, or buy/access it from a university repository? This information would potentially be helpful for the institutions involved to investigate further, and provide a model for any similar cases in future.