Continuing a debate that started several months ago, The Lancet this month published several letters, including one from a publication ethics group, criticizing the European Journal of Cancer (EJC)'s decision to quietly withdraw a publication about mammography from its Web site without any explanation.
In this latest round of letters the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) weighs in, stating that 'published work--electronically or otherwise--should not be removed without appropriate correction or retraction,' and that the authors were not given due process.
COPE's secretary Linda Gough told The Scientist that the EJC is not a member of COPE, but that COPE wrote a letter to EJC inviting the journal to become a member.
The Scientist's Web site has also been host to the dispute over whether EJC's decision to remove an article from its Web site without a trace was appropriate. The senior investigator, Peter Gøtzsche, considers the withdrawal to be ...
