COPE provides leadership in thinking on publication ethics and practical resources to educate and support members, and offers a professional voice in current debates.
Systematic manipulation of the publishing process via 'paper mills' is a significant, and growing, problem. At the COPE Forum we discussed ways in which it is possible to detect these papers, and how to deal with them on individual and wider scales. Sabina Alam, from Taylor and Francis, with a group of COPE member publishers, have written a publisher perspective that describes collective actions required to help address these issues. Read more in Deborah Poff's letter from the COPE Chair.
Our core practices
Core practices are the policies and practices journals and publishers need, to reach the highest standards in publication ethics. We include cases with advice, guidance for day-to-day practice, education modules and events on topical issues, to support journals and publishers fulfil their policies.
Guidance & discussion
We invited speakers from the Text Recycling Research Project (TRRP) to our August webinar, to hear about their latest findings, and the ethical and practical issues involved in establishing good practice and effective policy. The recording is now available, plus questions we couldn't get to during the webinar which have since been answered by the TRRP team.
Paper mills and the systematic manipulation of the publication process is the topic of discussion in this issue of Digest.
We bring together support and guidance on issues that have come about during this crisis. The collection includes articles on how authors, editors and reviewers are handling their work during this period and guidelines developed in response to the changing environment and workflow.
COPE news
We are seeking applications from members interested in serving on COPE Council. We particularly welcome applications from journal editors; candidates with a background in arts, humanities, and social sciences; and members with a background in professional membership organisations.
Read the latest publication ethics new, gathered by COPE, with articles on open access, research integrity, current challenges in the publishing industry and more.
New research 'Data sharing policies in scholarly publications: interdisciplinary comparisons' gives an insightful assessment of current preferences for data sharing processes and platform solutions across different disciplines.
Dr Trevor Lane, COPE Council member, was an invited speaker at the 2020 Asia Pacific Virtual Event of ISMTE, presenting In the session on 'Transparency in the Publishing Process'.