- Forum discussion topics
COPE Forum 11 November 2019: Artificial intelligence (AI) in decision making
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology has advanced steadily over the past several years, and has started to introduce data-driven solutions to many processes throughout the publication process. AI tools can be developed to provide guidance to humans based on relevant data, or AI may lend toward automation of some processes without human intervention. Some processes already being considered… - Flowcharts
Spanish: All flowcharts
…COPE's flowcharts in Spanish For the latest version (English language) of this guidance visit https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.2.26. Other languages: Sample Letters
Writing to authors or reviewers about potential misconduct is one of the hardest (but hopefully rarest) tasks of an Editor. It is important that Editors act politely, fairly but firmly at all times. They should not accuse authors or reviewers, but rather should state the facts clearly, giving any evidence, and allowing authors or reviewers a chance to explain their actions before coming to…Expenses policy
…accommodation and food Principles COPE will reimburse reasonable expenses that Trustees, Council Members, staff, and invited speakers at COPE events (the ‘submitter’), wholly, exclusively, and necessarily incur in the performance of their work for COPE under the following principles: COPE’s business activities conform to relevant law…Cookie policy
…The COPE cookie policy relates to your use of the COPE website at https://publicationethics.org Page contents –– What are cookies? –– Can I disable cookies? –– More about cookies –– Cookies on the COPE…- Case
“Medical research” using data in the public domain
Information on competitors participating in a popular sporting activity was obtained from a website in the public domain. The authors used this data to see if the competitors' personal characteristics (height, weight etc.) affected their chances of winning. The editor asked the authors how they obtained consent from the competitors for this study. The authors responded saying that this data… - Guidelines
A short guide to ethical editing for new editors
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,… - News
Case discussion: Low-risk study with no ethics committee approval
…were from an international non-governmental organisation and the country’s government, which together funded and conducted the campaign. The manuscript also reported on data from an online survey of the petition signers that had not been reviewed by a research ethics committee. The authors claimed that the survey was low risk, the participants had consented, and the data were not of a sensitive… - News
COPE Digest: Publication Ethics in Practice. February 2014 (Vol. 2, Issue 2)
The February issue of COPE Digest has been published on the COPE website. Read it here.… - Event
14th Annual IAVE Meeting
Held at Swissotel in Chicago in conjunction with the 2017 International Congress on Peer Review and Scientific Publication. The themes of this year's meeting are peer review and predatory journals/publishers. Read more… - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: July 2020
C4DISC Dear Readers, I would like to begin by welcoming our newest Trustee, Dr Suzanne Farley. Suzanne brings a wealth of experience in publication ethics and we are particularly interested in her knowledge with respect to open access. Welcome, Suzanne. We all look forward to working with… - News
First Brazilian Meeting on Research Integrity, Science and Publication Ethics (I BRISPE), December 2010
I BRISPE joins together the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), the Brazilian Center for Physics Research (CBPF), the Institute for Information in Science and Technology (IBICT), the University of São Paulo (USP) and the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), in association with the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI). The I BRISPE… - Event
Update on publication guidelines and insights from AMWA, EMWA and ISMPP
The International Society of Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP) invites members of COPE to a special educational webinar focused on medical publication guidelines, on Wednesday, January 28th, 11:00am – 12:30pm EST. The webinar will feature representatives from ISMPP, the American Medical Writers Association ( - Event
EASE Conference
A stimulating programme of plenary lectures (including Bernd Pulverer, EMBO Press, María del Carmen Ruíz Alcocer, AMERBAC, and Mark Patterson, eLife) and parallel sessions covering a range of topics on editing and managing journals, sex and… - Case
A highly critical obituary
A journal published a highly critical obituary, which provoked uproar and prompted the deceased’s family to complain to the national body responsible for regulating the media. The journal believed that the basis of the criticisms were accurate and acknowledged that it had not cited sufficient evidence in the obituary. The journal was considering whether to publish the evidence in full. The… - Case
Massaging the impact factor
The editor in chief of a journal started insisting that authors include references from the journal in their articles. S/he provided examples of acceptance letters from several other journals in the field, which insist that their authors do this, as evidence that it is standard and acceptable practice. The authors do not agree and think this is an unethical attempt to massage the impact… - Flowcharts
Responding to whistleblowers when concerns are raised via social media
COPE's guidelines, as a flowchart, on how to respond to whistleblowers when concerns are raised about a published article on a social media site. How should you respond when a published article is criticised on social media or a post-publication peer review site(s)? The criticism could include anonymous or not anonymous concerns about scientific soundness or allegations of plagiarism,… - Flowcharts
Responding to whistleblowers when concerns are raised directly
…allegations of plagiarism, figure manipulation or other forms of misconduct. Responding to whistleblowers when concerns are raised directly - Case
Is it possible for an article to have two corresponding authors?
Advice on this case is from a small number of COPE Council Members. Most cases on the COPE website are presented to the COPE Forum where advice is offered by a wider group of COPE Members and COPE Council Members. Advice on individual cases is not formal COPE guidance. There are no ethical issues with having two…