Where to find official publication ethics guidelines and best practices?

Question

I am quite confused by publication ethics issues in academics, related to:

• redundancy of data using the same data set in different publications
• redundancy of description using the same figures or part of text to describe instruments, data set or samples
• redundancy of results using results in more than one publications for highlighting different aspect of the results

I have tried to find some guidelines, I found Int J Clin Pract Suppl. 2007 Jan; 61 (Suppl 152): 1–26., but I was wondering if there was a white paper or something more official.

I would, however, appreciate any guidelines or advice to solve these doubts.

Answer 1

I would suggest to follow the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines to get enough idea on your mentioned issues. You could also find the some exemplary cases (here) and how are then being handled by journals or the COPE boards.

Briefly, it says:

"COPE is a forum for editors and publishers of peer reviewed journals to discuss all aspects of publication ethics. It also advises editors on how to handle cases of research and publication misconduct." (Source: COPE Homepage)

Further, you could also find publisher-wise publication ethics guidelines, though they follow more or less the same practice:

1. Elsevier Publishing Ethics Resource
2. Springer Publication Ethics for Journals
3. IEEE Publication Ethics
4. Wiley Publication Ethics Guidelines for Authors
5. ACS Code of Ethics

A brief browsing through the above would give you a lot of information on such stuff, which one must know before entering into the research world.