COPE has been spending a lot of attention over the past few months considering, discussing, and speaking on the issue of predatory publishing. This included a summit held by Ottawa University, one of the institutions who are part of our university pilot Forty delegates were invited to meet and reach consensus on a definition of the phenomenon and a commitment to one stop shopping for information on predatory publishing.
Recently, I presented on a plenary session held at the World Congress on Research Integrity (#WCRI2019). The session addressed predatory publishing with three speakers addressing various aspects of the issue. The presentation was based on a COPE Discussion Document on Predatory Publishing that is currently in its third iteration and will be available to all soon. In that discussion document, we included a stakeholder analysis which looks at the harm of this type of fraud on authors, other journals, students, other researchers, universities, funders and tax payers. It also addresses issues of protecting and promoting the scholarly record which is a common issue for us all. We hope that this different lens on the issue will be helpful for our members and the community of scholars who also use our materials. If you would like to be notified when the COPE Predatory Publishing Discussion Document is available, please register.
Following the WCRI, I delivered a keynote address to the European Network on Academic Integrity. While not a COPE member, the network brings together like-minded scholars who are committed to academic integrity in teaching, learning and research. I was pleased to participate and meet new colleagues who share COPE’s commitment to scholarly integrity.
We hope you all enjoy the summer whether on vacation or using the extra time to work on scholarship.
COPE Chair Deborah Poff
Read June 2019 Digest newsletter for a case discussion on an authorship issue: 'Authors’ contributions and involvement by medical communications company'. Read a summary from panel members on the Authorship and Transparency discussions at the World Conference on Research Integrity (#WCRI2019). The new and updated cases presented at the COPE Forum in May are now available online and include issues on authorship, dual submission, and post-publication corrections. Keep abreast of news & events in #PublicationEthics as collated by COPE Council members.