Many journals and publishers employ online submission systems to process manuscripts. In some cases, one “template” format exists, but it is then molded slightly to suit the specific needs of each journal, a decision made by the editor-in-chief or editors. In the past few years, there has been an increase in the number of cases in which OSSs have been abused, mostly by the authorship, either through the creation of fake identities or the use of false e-mail accounts. Although the (...) abusive or fraudulent authors are at fault in such cases, the fact that such cases remained undetected for so long is of concern. Moreover, the current OSSs are imperfect, have security issues and may not be able to detect false information, except through post-submission verification. Sting operations, which involve the submission of false manuscripts with false identities and false affiliations, are no less unethical, and those who abuse the publishing protocol deserve to be as reprimanded as those who abuse OSSs. Finally, I question the ethics of editors or publishers creating OSS accounts on behalf of reviewers prior to obtaining their explicit permission. doi: 10.5294/pebi.2016.20.2.3. (shrink)

En varios estudios ya se ha documentado la falta de transparencia en los avisos de retractación (AdR), que a menudo omiten infor-mación de vital importancia que permitiría a los lectores apreciar las complejidades de todo el proceso, incluidos los involucrados y las razones que llevaron a la retractación en sí. Un tema específico que rara vez se discute en la literatura académica es el desacuerdo de los autores con las retractaciones, la redacción de las AdR o las propias retractaciones. En (...) este artículo, mediante seis ejemplos de retractaciones y sus respectivos AdR en diferentes revistas y/o editoriales, todos miembros de la COPE, se ofrece una reflexión sobre por qué este tema necesita mayor debate y claridad de procedimiento por parte de editores, revistas y editoriales. (shrink)