PLAGIARISM AND PUBLICATION FEE
A journal’s editors were informed about a plagiarism case just before the last step in the volume publication process. The publication fee for the paper was already paid by the author and the author completed and signed the publication agreement in which confirmed the paper's originality. The author was informed of the plagiarism issue and also that the paper would be withdrawn from publication. The author then requested reimbursement of the payment.
COPE advice
The editors need not refund the publication fee, which has been spent (at least in part) in good faith in manuscript preparation and the administration process. Also, it was the authors who, by their actions, voided the publication contract. The journal could publicise a no-refunds policy in the future on its website for cases such as a paper needing to be withdrawn after acceptance.
The journal did not breach the copyright of the original paper that was plagiarised as the paper was not published, but the author infringed the copyright. Unpublished, the plagiarised paper still represents a copyright violation by the person who plagiarised the article. Anyone who copies a third party's copyrighted content (setting aside "fair use") without permission has violated that person's copyright.
