The Society for Economic Research on Copyright Issues

Review of Economic Research on Copyright Issues (RERCI)

Research Misconduct and/or Malpractice Process

Should any allegations, or evidence, of research misconduct in any published paper in RERCI, including but not restricted to research that is unethical, misleading, biased, or plagiarised, be brought to the attention of the Managing Editor, the following steps will take place.

  1. The Managing Editor will immediately initiate a confidential inquiry into the matter, gathering evidence from the person(s) who have brought the matter to the attention of the Managing Editor, as well as conducting independent research into the matter of concern.

  2. Once sufficient evidence has been gathered to either support or refute the allegation of malpractice, the Managing Editor will set up a Committee comprising of (i) the Managing Editor, (ii) two other members of the Editorial Board of RERCI, and (iii) two other leading independent academics in the field of research concerned. The Managing Editor will present the allegation of malpractice to the Committee, along with all of the evidence gathered.

  3. The Committee will consider whether the allegation is substantiated by the evidence, and will make a determination on which of the following courses of action will be taken:

    1. If the allegation of malpractice is not substantiated, a formal letter will be sent to the initiator of the allegation outlining the Committee’s decision, along with the reasons and evidence for that decision. No further action will be taken, although the initiator of the allegation will have a right to initiate a new process, so long as new additional evidence accompanies any such new allegation.

    2. If the allegation of malpractice is substantiated, the Committee will request the Managing Editor to contact, by formal letter, the author(s) of the offending paper, to inform of the allegation and of the outcome of the Committee process. The author(s) will be asked for their defence and/or explanation, which (if received) will be considered by the Committee. If no response is received from the author(s), or if the defence/explanation that is submitted is deemed insufficient, then the offending paper will be retracted. For smaller breaches or minor errors, the Committee can decide not to retract the original publication, and to request from the author(s) corrections, clarifications and/or apologies, which will be published and made public in the journal. In all cases, a formal letter will be sent to the initiator of the allegation to inform of the outcome.