COPE provides leadership in thinking on publication ethics and practical resources to educate and support members, and offers a professional voice in current debates.
New
This is COPE's first study to exclusively focus on publication ethics issues in the arts, humanities, and social sciences disciplines. Completed by more than 650 journal editors, the study has highlighted that detecting plagiarism in papers submitted to a journal is the most serious issue they tackle, something which over half of editors reported encountering. The findings of this new research also reveal that remaining inclusive whilst addressing issues around language and writing quality barriers is the most prevalent issue they experience, as global research output continues to grow.
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.
News & opinion
In early 2019 COPE, with the support of Routledge (part of the Taylor & Francis Group), commissioned primary research with Shift Learning to better understand the publication ethics landscape for editors working on journals within the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Editors told us which issues they find most prevalent, most serious and those they felt least confident dealing with.
This special issue focuses on some of some of our activities addressing publication ethics issues in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. With the launch of our survey results, we also hear from Karin Wulf, one of our speakers at the COPE North American Seminar, in a guest article. Trevor Lane discusses a case brought to the COPE Forum on possible plagiarism, an issue that our survey respondents felt was the most serious issue they deal with. Also, our monthly news and events roundup.
Authors submitted an article to a second journal without following journal procedures for withdrawing the article. Read more about interaction with the authors and editor of the second journal. Advice from C0PE Forum with update.
A Short Guide to Ethical Editing for New Editors. Becoming an editor of a journal is an exciting but daunting task. This short guide aims to summarise key issues and to provide links to useful resources. #C0PEGuidelines #EthicalOversight #PublicationEthics
Events
23 September 2019
Looking forward to seeing everyone who has registered at our European Seminar in Leiden. Guest speakers #TextRecycling: Cary Moskovitz, Principal Investigator on a 5-year study on text recycling; David Hansen, Copyright and Information Policy Officer; Michael Pemberton, Professor of Writing and Linguistics. Speaker #PredatoryPublishing: Deborah Poff, COPE Chair, Guest speakers #Retractions: Howard Browman, COPE Council; Thed van Leeuwen Senior Researcher; Catriona Fennell, Director Publishing Services. Speaker #ArtsHumanitiesSocialSciences: Deborah Kahn, COPE Trustee. Guest speaker #ResearchMisconduct in the media: Frank van Kolfschooten, Journalist.
Read about the discussion on the intricacies of preprints and the ethical issues they raise followed by lively discussion with the audience of #wcri2019 who articulated their views on preprints.
Summary of the Transparency 2025 panel discussion at the World Congress on Research Integrity with sessions on: transparency as the key to integrity; reasons for publishing in open access publications; arguments for and issues in open data; and concerns from an educational researcher's view. #WCRI2019
What is predatory publishing, what forms does it take and how can researchers avoid getting involved with predatory publishers. The plenary at the WCRI heard from: Deborah Poff, COPE; Bhushan Patwardhan, University Grants Commission, India; Matt Hodgkinson, Hindawi.