Dear Flemming, This would be an intellectual property dispute. A is cleaning that B has used his IP without agreement. Most universities (and I assume other organisations) have IP policies that protect staff from having there IP stolen; the IP nominally belongs to the institution so the theft is legally from A's institution. I suggest that the correct procedure would be for A to contact their department responsible for IP to pursue B for IP theft.
Universities are highly sensitive to reputational damage so B's institution are likely not to back B if there is a reputational risk. Theft of IP would constitute a high risk of reputational damage. All the best, Alun Dr Alun R. Coker Associate Professor University College London Division of Medicine The Rayne Building 5 University Street London WC1E 6JF Tel: 020 7679 6703 Ext 46703 Web: www.ucl.ac.uk/pxmed<http://www.ucl.ac.uk/pxmed> From: Mark J van Raaij Sent: Wednesday 21 August, 09:12 Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] need someone officially settle a pdb dispute for a publication To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK Dear Flemming, As I understand it (I may be wrong), the final responsible institutions are those where the authors work. But as you say, they sometimes don't even reply - or they just may be very slow because they want to be really sure before committing to any answer. But the journal has a responsibility also, to retract the paper if there is a serious suspicion the data were not obtained ethically. Of course, it may be difficult to prove ownership of a pdb file, if both authors claim ownership there is not really a way the journal can decide who is right. In my opinion, the journal should officially contact the institutions where the authors work to try and resolve this. The institutions may take the journal more seriously than a single researcher. A generally respected institution that may advise on authorship disputes is COPE, Committee on Publication Ethics: https://publicationethics.org/<https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublicationethics.org%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7Cff30200e84e54aca4f7408d7260f50c8%7C1faf88fea9984c5b93c9210a11d9a5c2%7C0%7C0%7C637019719533888373&sdata=QvZYG5V72vQU2HQuApB%2BjYJY%2FjZte2hDPBJALScpMvs%3D&reserved=0> May also take a while though... They have a database with anonymised examples of previously resolved disputes that may be helpful - you may find a similar situation on which they have "ruled". These are of course not legal rulings, but are considered by their members (most respectable journals) as a strong guideline. This case may have similarities: https://publicationethics.org/case/claim-stolen-data-and-demand-retractions<https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublicationethics.org%2Fcase%2Fclaim-stolen-data-and-demand-retractions&data=02%7C01%7C%7Cff30200e84e54aca4f7408d7260f50c8%7C1faf88fea9984c5b93c9210a11d9a5c2%7C0%7C0%7C637019719533898364&sdata=fIK7yCS9K2Vk6lojkkSQdpo2fVEpW9yDZPXdGFvL7u8%3D&reserved=0> Best of luck, Mark Mark J van Raaij Dpto de Estructura de Macromoleculas Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia - CSIC calle Darwin 3 E-28049 Madrid, Spain tel. (+34) 91 585 4616 On 20 Aug 2019, at 17:45, Flemming Goery <flemming_go...@hotmail.com<mailto:flemming_go...@hotmail.com>> wrote: Dear All, A and B belong to 2 different institutes. A claimed B has used his pdb for a publication in Journal C. Journal C did not give the retraction, but permit complain related to the journal publication author issue, with the prerequisite journal C did not have the authority on authorship dispute. Then A has e-mailed to the institute head of B with academic misconduct by B as claim, the institute head of B did not give reply. In this situation, can A have the journal authorship dispute settled by a neutral reviewer (Journal C view: you (A) need to reach out to the institutions that have authority to adjudicate on such matters, as investigation and adjudication on authorship claims falls outside the remit of journal editors. )? Who are qualified as the neutral reviewer so that the review decision can be submitted to Journal C? If you believe you are qualified, or you know somebody or some organization qualified, please let me know and I will introduce the issue to you by separate e-mail (it is best not disseminated, am I right?) Best regards. Flemming To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1<https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jiscmail.ac.uk%2Fcgi-bin%2Fwebadmin%3FSUBED1%3DCCP4BB%26A%3D1&data=02%7C01%7C%7Cff30200e84e54aca4f7408d7260f50c8%7C1faf88fea9984c5b93c9210a11d9a5c2%7C0%7C0%7C637019719533898364&sdata=s6gdhcCw7GRINQp4C22X8JzALriiznlxRnmvt3gNLjw%3D&reserved=0> To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1<https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jiscmail.ac.uk%2Fcgi-bin%2Fwebadmin%3FSUBED1%3DCCP4BB%26A%3D1&data=02%7C01%7C%7Cff30200e84e54aca4f7408d7260f50c8%7C1faf88fea9984c5b93c9210a11d9a5c2%7C0%7C0%7C637019719533908360&sdata=fQrDCCKFSZJLXUVb%2BU%2BSkJ1dJquDu%2BkiMoApVLdHBXs%3D&reserved=0> ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1
