Welcome everyone. Happy September. This is a very busy month with lots of activities going on, so without further ado I will jump right in.

Concerns about varying approaches to editing a submitted peer review were discussed in the COPE Education Committee in 2019 and we decided to address this issue. The Committee members were most concerned about the ethical implications of an editor choosing to completely withhold a submitted review if it didn’t conform to her or his own opinion. 

The theme of this year’s Peer Review Week is on ‘Exploring the multifaceted role of identity in peer review’.

To support this, COPE is reproducing its survey of 2018 on diversity and inclusion in peer review to compare whether attitudes, policies or practices have altered over the past three years.   

The survey is anonymous and open to members and non-members.

Take the survey

Each month, COPE Council members find and share publication ethics news. This month the news includes articles on diversity, equity and inclusion, peer review, and predatory publishing. 

Find out why and how to diversity your editorial board.

Each month, COPE Council members find and share publication ethics news. This month the news includes articles on allegations of misconduct, authorship, ethical oversight and more. 

Each month, COPE Council members find and share publication ethics news. This month the news includes articles on artificial intelligence, open science, research culture, peer review, and more. 

Here we are, just past the halfway point of the year and the pandemic persists. We have seen great progress holding off COVID-19 in some regions of the world while others slide back as new strains appear. The UK is gearing up to remove COVID-19 based restrictions this month in an attempt to return to normal. But what is the new normal? Flexible work arrangements are becoming the norm and some companies have simply shifted away from centralised offices. And yet, COPE’s work continues.

Undisclosed conflict of interest in a published article: updated flowchart

The COPE flowcharts are consistently rated by members as being among the most useful and frequently consulted COPE resources. Available in different languages, they offer practical guidance to handle a variety of ethical issues encountered in scholarly publishing either before or after publication.

Each month, COPE Council members find and share publication ethics news. This month the news includes articles on intellectual property, preprints, peer review, and more.