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The guidelines are the Collection of Open Science Integrity Guides (COSIG), a free online collection for people examining published research and raising concerns responsibly. COSIG launched on 4 June 2025 with 27 guides described in launch coverage; by June 2026, its official site listed 35. The guides offer practical starting points for post-publication peer review—not verdicts that any particular paper or researcher committed misconduct.
What COSIG is—and what it is for
COSIG stands for the Collection of Open Science Integrity Guides. It is a maintained set of practical guides for post-publication peer review (PPPR): scrutiny and discussion of research after it has been published. The project aims to make specialized methods and knowledge more accessible to readers who want to understand possible problems and report concerns constructively. Its official site describes the collection as a resource for literature stewardship and forensic metascience.
The project’s invitation—“Anyone can do post-publication peer review”—is an encouragement to engage, not a claim that every question can be assessed without expertise. COSIG also cautions that investigating research integrity may require subject-specific knowledge. A guide can help a reader recognize an issue or identify what evidence to examine; it does not by itself establish misconduct.
What the guides cover
The collection combines introductory advice with practical methods and subject-specific guidance. At launch, Chemistry World reported guides on PubPeer commenting, image-related problems, citations, ethics approval, plagiarism, antibody verification, non-verifiable cell lines, and concerns involving X-ray diffraction and spectroscopy, computer science, mathematics, and statistics.
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By the official site’s 10 June 2026 update, its 35 listed guides also included topics such as extracting vector graphics and tabular data, image duplication and compression artifacts, image-forensics software, Excel-based data forensics, formulaic research, suspicious venues, citations to retracted publications, and pseudoreplication. The collection includes guides on reporting concerns to publishers, legal considerations, and responding to common dismissive replies, alongside material on getting started with PPPR. For the maintained list, consult the COSIG guide collection.
Why reports give different guide counts
| Date and source | Count | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 4 June 2025 launch, as reported by Chemistry World on 17 June 2025 | 27 handbooks | A launch-time count, not the present collection size. |
| Official COSIG site, update reported as 10 June 2026 | 35 guides | The site’s listed collection at that update. |
| Ozturk, Pirelli and Richardson, PLOS Biology, 2026 | 35 guides by 22 experts | The authors’ description of the collection in their 2026 introduction. |
The figures differ because COSIG grew after its launch. The official collection is maintained, so its count and topics can change; use the site for the latest listing rather than treating either dated figure as permanent.
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How to access and reuse COSIG material
The official COSIG site offers guides as individual PDF downloads and also provides a combined PDF. It invites suggestions through an issue in its repository or by email. The public OSF project record identifies the project as a host for accessible PPPR guides.
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Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →The site’s stated default license is Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), unless an individual guide says otherwise. That means attribution is required, reuse is limited to noncommercial purposes, and adaptations must be shared under the same license. Check the notice on the specific PDF before reusing it.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to approach a possible concern
COSIG is designed to support careful scrutiny and constructive reporting. A guide is best treated as a method for examining a defined question—such as whether figures appear duplicated or whether a citation points to a retracted publication—not as proof of intent or wrongdoing. Its material on reporting concerns and legal considerations is relevant when a reader moves from noticing an anomaly to communicating it.
Jennifer Byrne, a molecular oncologist at the University of Sydney and a contributor to some guides, told Chemistry World that the guidelines should help amateurs and experts alike and reduce unfounded accusations, including those arising from personal conflicts or grudges. That distinction matters: an apparent anomaly can merit checking without proving how or why it happened. The 2026 PLOS Biology introduction by COSIG authors reports the collection’s size and contributors, but the available cited sources do not establish a measured effect on how many concerns are detected, reported, or resolved.
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