iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

COSIG @cosig.net · 04/06/2026

Today, COSIG and Sal Sleuthmander turn 1 year old! 🎂 Contributions to COSIG are the best birthday gifts we can ever receive, many thanks to all of our contributors 🎉

Sal Sleuthmander, a Chinese giant salamander, sports a conical birthday hat and gazes appreciatively over his cake with a 1 candle.

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COSIG @cosig.net · 07/05/2026

Sleuths face various legal risks but they can also use the law for their advantage. ⚖️ COSIG's newest guide, number 3️⃣5️⃣, covers legal considerations for taking part in forensic peer review. Read it here: osf.io/q3y7s

COSIG: The Collection of Open Science Integrity Guides
Newest version available at cosig.net!

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COSIG @cosig.net · 05/05/2026

Can you tell what’s wrong with these figures and tables? Come to find out!

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COSIG @cosig.net · 05/05/2026

The COSIG team is at #WCRI2026 ! Our poster is up at station 120. We'll all be there today from 12:00 to 1:30; come stop by!

The COSIG team stands beaming in front of our poster

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COSIG @cosig.net · 05/04/2026

Happy Easter from Sal Sleuthmander and the COSIG team! 🐣🐰🪺

Sal Sleuthmander (a floppy Chinese Giant Salamander) were a pink polkadot deerstalker, wields a pink magnifying glass, and stands next to a basket of eggs

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COSIG @cosig.net · 11/03/2026

Do you know what to do when a study you have cited gets retracted? COSIG's entry on Citations to Retracted Publications has been updated with what to do in this situation. Read all about it: osf.io/9q3as

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COSIG @cosig.net · 20/02/2026

Stealth corrections happen when a publisher makes changes to a scientific article after its publication, without issuing any public notice. To learn more, check out the latest COSIG entry on Stealth Corrections! osf.io/34nj5 COSIG (33 guides and growing!) is available at cosig.net.

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COSIG @cosig.net · 01/01/2026

Happy New Year from Sal Sleuthmander and the COSIG team! Here's to doing lots of post-publication peer review in 2026 🎆🥂🔎

An inquisitive cartoon Chinese giant salamander wears a conical "2026" party hat. Multicolored fireworks explode in the background. He wields a magnifying glass and copy of COSIG.

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COSIG @cosig.net · 25/12/2025

Merry Christmas and happy holidays from COSIG's newly-named mascot, Sal Sleuthmander!

Sal Sleuthmander (a chinese giant salamander) looks curious and wet as he peers through a magnifying glass. He holds a copy of COSIG adorned with a red bow.

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COSIG @cosig.net · 17/12/2025

Last week, COSIG's team of maintainers finally got to meet up in person! @solalpirelli.bsky.social @reeserichardson.bsky.social

Solal, Yagmur and Reese stand in front of a Christmas tree and a staircase and smile at the camera.

Yagmur reaches out to either side to grab Reese and Solal's heads and bring them into frame. All three are laughing but Yagmur is definitely having the most fun

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COSIG @cosig.net · 24/11/2025

Scientific articles often report data in tables. COSIG's latest guide covers methods to export these tables into a spreadsheet editor like Microsoft Excel! COSIG (32 guides and growing!) is available at cosig.net.

New guide: Extracting tabular data from an article

cosig.net

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COSIG @cosig.net · 19/11/2025

COSIG has a new mascot but he doesn't yet have a name! Any suggestions?

A mottled gray Chinese giant salamander wearing a deerstalker peers into a magnifying glass. He holds a copy of COSIG in his right hand (foot? limb? idk).

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COSIG @cosig.net · 14/11/2025

The FDA Adverse Events Reporting System (FAERS) is useful for identifying potential adverse events associated with drugs. However, its data is often exploited to produce articles reporting spurious drug risks. COSIG's entry on formulaic research now covers low-quality pharmacovigilance studies!

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COSIG @cosig.net · 17/10/2025

COSIG has a new landing page! Check it out at cosig.net. (Files for COSIG are still hosted on OSF!)

The new landing page for COSIG, available at cosig.net.

It reads:

Anyone can do post-publication peer review.
Anyone can be a steward of the scientific literature.
Anyone can do forensic metascience.
Anyone can sleuth.

However, investigating the integrity of the published scientific literature often requires domain-specific knowledge that not everyone will have. This open source project is a collection of guides written and maintained by publication integrity experts to distribute this domain-specific knowledge so that others can participate in post-publication peer review.

COSIG currently hosts 31 guides and was last updated on 25 September 2025. Guides can be downloaded as individual PDFs. A combined PDF with all guides included can be downloaded here.

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COSIG @cosig.net · 25/09/2025

What is a "calculation chain" file? How can I easily identify duplicated values in a table? COSIG's 31st guide is all about data forensics using Microsoft Excel! osf.io/bz725 As always, all guides are available at cosig.net.

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COSIG @cosig.net · 17/09/2025

Adjusting the black/white levels in an image can reveal inconsistencies barely perceptible to the naked eye. A 2018 article in Scientific Reports was just retracted as a result of several such inconsistencies. Check out COSIG's guide on software for image forensics here: osf.io/g23pf

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COSIG @cosig.net · 10/07/2025

Our entry on reporting publication integrity issues to publishers has contact information to reach the publication integrity and publication ethics departments at most major scholarly publishers. Read here: osf.io/4edk2 All of COSIG is available at cosig.net!

Contact information for integrity/ethics teams at major publishers
• American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, Science, Science
Advances, etc.): science_data@aaas.org.
• American Chemical Society (ACS): Each journal usually has contact information
for a managing editor, usually at managing.editor@<journal-url>.org
• American Society for Microbiology: ethics.journals@asmusa.org
• British Medical Journal (BMJ): publication.ethics@bmj.com
• Elsevier (Elsevier, Cell Press, etc.): ethicsexpert@elsevier.com
• Frontiers: research.integrity@frontiersin.org
• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE): pub-ethics@ieee.org
• Karger: publication.ethics@karger.com
• MDPI: publication.ethics@mdpi.com
• Oxford University Press: journals.ethics@oup.com
• PLOS: pub-ethics@plos.org
• Rockefeller University Press (Journal of Cell Biology, Life Science Alliance, etc.):
integrity@rupress.org
• Sage (Sage, Mary-Ann Liebert): publication_ethics@sagepub.com
• Springer Nature (Springer, Nature, BMC): ethics.reporting@springernature.com
• Taylor & Francis (Taylor & Francis, Dove Medical Press, CRC Press, Routledge):
ethics@tandf.co.uk
• Thieme: publishingethics@thieme.de
• Wiley (Wiley, Hindawi, FEBS Press): researchintegrity@wiley.com

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COSIG @cosig.net · 03/07/2025

A 2019 Cochrane systematic review on using lithium to treat acute mania confuses standard error (SE) with standard deviation (SD) for two studies included in a meta-analysis, resulting in an overestimation of overall effect size in that meta-analysis. See COSIG's guide on the topic: osf.io/hp4yd

A comparison of the original meta-analysis for Outcome 3 shown in https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD004048.pub4 and a corrected meta-analysis. Created by Nanarchaea binnaburra on PubPeer: https://pubpeer.com/publications/16EA56FE44642BA4284D5B02694875

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COSIG @cosig.net · 02/07/2025

"Data leakage" occurs when a statistical or machine learning model has access to data it shouldn't during the training process. This can lead to severe overestimation of a model's predictive performance. Data leakage is the subject of COSIG's 30th guide! Read here: osf.io/d8mzb

COSIG: Collection of Open Science Integrity Guides
Newest version available at cosig.net!

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COSIG @cosig.net · 26/06/2025

A recent article on preventing solar cells from overheating using nanoparticles presents this TEM image. However, this image contains apparent duplications. Can you spot them? Answers in PubPeer thread below. See COSIG's guide on image duplication: osf.io/547re

A TEM image of nanoparticles immersed in a fluid. Two regions are circled and labeled SiO2 and Al2O3.

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COSIG @cosig.net · 19/06/2025

Do you want to take part in post-publication peer review but have no idea where to start? COSIG's newest guide covers exactly this, going over some basics and suggestions on how to get started with PPPR/forensic metascience/sleuthing! cosig.net "Getting started" guide: osf.io/8m2tz

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COSIG @cosig.net · 16/06/2025

The vertical line test is a simple method for gauging if a trace/curve is a mathematical function or not. Certain types of data, including nearly all spectra, should pass the vertical line test.

A diagram describing the vertical line test with mock height data.

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COSIG @cosig.net · 16/06/2025

One answer: this spectrum fails the vertical line test. There are several regions where the curve appears to double back on itself such that a single value on the x axis corresponds to multiple values on the y axis.

The same FTIR spectrum as in the previous post with regions failing the vertical line test highlighted by blue arrows.

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COSIG @cosig.net · 16/06/2025

Can you spot any issues with this published FTIR spectrum? One answer below...🧵

A red FTIR spectrum over black and white axes. The trace of the spectrum is quite squiggly.

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COSIG @cosig.net · 13/06/2025

If you asked four people their age in years, the average of their ages could only ever end in .0, .25, .50 or .75. This is the principle underlying GRIM (Granularity-Related Inconsistency of Means), now covered in a new guide for COSIG's first official update! cosig.net GRIM guide: osf.io/67bp4

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COSIG @cosig.net · 06/06/2025

Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS/EDX/EDAX) is a popular technique in materials science for analyzing the elemental composition of samples. Check out COSIG's EDX guide here: osf.io/shfjy Can you spot any issues with this EDX spectrum? Answers in the alt text.

A black and white EDX spectrum with energy in keV on the x-axis, counts on the y-axis, and peaks labeled with elemental symbols

Issues:

In increasing order, the lowest energy peaks here should be carbon, nitrogen,
oxygen, iron. The order shown here is nitrogen, oxygen, iron, carbon.

Cobalt has no peaks at ∼ 5.9 keV. The nearest expected peak is an escape peak at ∼5.2 keV.

Carbon does not have a peak at ∼ 7 keV.

Oxygen does not have a peak at ∼ 8 keV.

Hydrogen does not have any peaks, let alone one at ∼ 9 keV.

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COSIG @cosig.net · 04/06/2025

Anyone can do post-publication peer review. Anyone can be a steward of the scientific literature. Anyone can do forensic metascience. Anyone can sleuth. That's why we are launching COSIG: the Collection of Open Science Integrity Guides, an open source resource for all of the above. cosig.net

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