Guidelines

…and expectations; the level of editorial decisions to be made; and details of decision chains. Appointment terms should be defined with details such as appointment criteria, length of term, renewal terms, and reasons to end the appointment early. Journals should define the types or levels of conflicts of interest that are not permissible for their editors which, if present, should…

…manipulated peer review process The author(s) failed to disclose a major competing interest (a.k.a. conflict of interest) that, in the view of the editor, would have unduly affected interpretations of the work or recommendations by editors and peer reviewers. Notices of retraction should: Be linked to the retracted article wherever possible (ie, in all online…

Sharing of information among editors-in-chief (EICs) regarding cases of suspected misconduct can play a significant role in preserving the integrity of the scientific record, allowing EICs of affected journals to conduct investigations with greater efficiency and effectiveness. This guidance has been drafted following a COPE Forum Discussion in 2013, and Discussion Document in 2014 on…

…of what, and how, conflicts of interest must be disclosed by authors, reviewers, editors, journals and publishers. Requirements for data availability, use of reporting guidelines, and registration of clinical trials and other study designs should be clear in journal guidelines. Journals must publish clear guidelines on the ethical conduct of research, according to the research…

…How the journal will handle allegations of research misconduct. Journal’s policies on conflicts of interest. Journal’s policies on data sharing and reproducibility. Journal's policy on

…journals/publishers about any findings that relate to the reliability or attribution of published work that may arise during a research integrity or misconduct investigation respond to journals if they request information about issues, such as disputed authorship, misleading reporting, competing interests, or other factors, including honest errors, that could affect the reliability of published work…

This guidance has been incorporated into new COPE guidelines: Managing the relationships between society owned journals, their society, and publishers …

COPE Text Recycling Guidelines are intended to advise editors and publishers on expected practice when identifying sections of the same text appearing in more than one of an author's own publications.  Text recycling guidelines

The journals of 'Learned Societies' and 'Professional Associations' are an important part of the scientific literature. Regardless of the publication arrangements and the number of journals affiliated with that society, the policies of and the relationships among the journals, any publisher and the society must be of the highest quality, ethically sound, and as transparent as possible. COPE…

…publishing medical case reports: guidance from COPE PDF 250 KB Key points The publication of case reports is a common practice in medical journals, and increasingly…

Regulations regarding what type of study requires ethical approval vary worldwide. In some countries all studies require ethical approval but in others not. This may lead to submission to journals of manuscripts relating to such studies that do not satisfy the journal’s normal requirement for independent ethical approval, and rejection of the manuscript because of misunderstanding of local…

Peer review guidelines provide basic principles and standards to which all peer reviewers should adhere during the peer review process in research publication. Peer reviewers play a central and critical part in the peer-review process, but too often come to the role without any guidance and unaware of their ethical obligations. These guidelines are intended to be applied across…

Advising editors, publishers, and researchers on expected practices and appropriate circumstances regarding the editing of peer reviews.  The guidelines look at the need for journals to amend peer reviews, and provide insight into situations where this might be an appropriate course of action. Journals should have clear policies on what is acceptable and unacceptable in a reviewer…

This short guide aims to summarise the key principles, tasks and relationships of the journal editor role. Becoming an editor of a journal is an exciting but daunting task, especially if you are working alone without day to day contact with editorial colleagues. You may have encountered several different processes, systems and ways of working in your experiences with journals, as author,…

…class="resource-download-inline__shadow"> Authors should discuss authorship when planning research, agree authorship in writing, and revisit the agreement through stages of the research. Handle disagreements as they happen. Negotiate disputes and misconduct dispassionately, using facts and guidelines.…