Research Integrity
Paper Mills and Authorship for Sale: The Offers to Refuse
The paper-mill marketplace from the buyer side: five offer types in one table, the wording that gives each away, and a seven-step rule for the email y...
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Directive Academy
Guides on peer review, research integrity & scholarly publishing — for authors, reviewers and editors
Research Integrity
Who Owns a Journal Publisher — and Who Can Overrule an Editor?
Ownership and governance without the gloss: the decision chain that ends with the Editor-in-Chief, a six-quest...
Directive Editorial Team · 7 min
Research Integrity
Is This Journal Email Genuine? What We Send and Never Send
A full inventory of publisher-to-author correspondence, the solicitation patterns that never come from us, and...
Directive Editorial Team · 7 min
Research Integrity
Why We Do Not Send Unsolicited Journal Invitations
The economics behind cold journal emails, an incentive table keyed to when a publisher takes payment, a declin...
Directive Editorial Team · 7 min
“Legitimate journals are transparent about their fees, peer review and editorial board — verify all three before you submit.”
— Directive Publications Editorial Standards
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Research Integrity
How to Report a Problem With an Article We Published
Found an error in something we published? Send the article title, DOI, the specific concern and what you want done. This is the route that exists toda...
Research Integrity
Getting Institutional Clearance to Publish Hospital Data
Your ethics committee cannot speak for the hospital board. A clinician's guide to the third permission, the one that can surface only after the manusc...
Research Integrity
When Two Papers Share Patients: Disclosing Overlapping Patient Cohorts
A second paper from a cohort you have already reported needs a named disclosure, not a hint. Here is the wording, the four facts to state, and a six-q...
Research Integrity
Author Name Changes and Correcting the Published Record
Names change — through marriage, divorce, transition, or transliteration. For years the only route was a public correction notice. Better practice now...
Research Integrity
Authorship Disputes: How to Prevent and Resolve Them
Authorship arguments stall more papers than bad data ever will. Almost all of them trace back to a conversation that never happened at the start of th...
Research Integrity
How Similarity Screening Works (and How to Read a Similarity Report)
A "38% similarity" result is not a verdict of plagiarism — and a 5% result is not proof of innocence. Here is what similarity software actually measur...
Research Integrity
ICMJE Recommendations: A Medical Author's Guide
If you publish in medicine, one document shapes more of the rules than any other. Here is what the ICMJE Recommendations require — authorship, trial r...
Research Integrity
COPE Core Practices Explained for Authors
Most journals say they "follow COPE". Here is what that actually means — the ten Core Practices, what they oblige a publisher to do, and how to use th...
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