- Guidelines
Ethics toolkit for a successful editorial office
…A COPE guide To help ensure the integrity of the scholarly record and the publication process, editorial offices should define and implement best practices in publication ethics. This COPE guide is a comprehensive toolkit that explains expected ethical practices in scholarly publishing, and highlights resources for editorial offices to develop their codes of ethical conduct and practic… - Guidelines
Editing peer reviews
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 report… - Guidelines
Editorial board participation
An overview of editorial board appointment and engagement, roles and responsibilities, and key details to consider during recruitment such as participation on multiple editorial boards. COPE Guidelines are formal COPE policy and are intended to advise editors and publishers on expected publication ethics practice. … - Guidelines
Managing the relationships between society owned journals, their society, and publishers
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 Gui… - Guidelines
Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing
The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) are scholarly organisatio… - Guidelines
Ensuring consent for publishing medical case reports
General principles around consent and consent forms for editors to use when developing forms for their journals' purposes. Journals’ Best Practices for ensuring consent for publishing medical case reports: guidance from COPE - Guidelines
Text recycling guidelines for editors
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 - 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, review… - Guidelines
Retraction guidelines
…COPE's Retraction guidelines for advice and guidance for editors: when should a retraction be considered, what to include in a notice, how quickly to issue a retraction, who should issue a retraction, and what to do when there is inconclusive evidence of a retraction. COPE Guidelines are formal COPE policy and are intended to advise editors and publishers on expected publication et… - Guidelines
How to handle authorship disputes: a guide for new researchers
Guidance for new researchers on good authorship practice, and advice on how to deal with authorship issues as they arise. How to handle authorship disputes: a guide for new researchers - Guidelines
Guidelines for the Board of Directors of Learned Society Journals
This guidance has been incorporated into new COPE guidelines: Managing the relationships between society owned journals, their society, and publishers … - Guidelines
Ethical guidelines for peer reviewers
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 disciplines. COP… - Guidelines
Sharing of information among editors-in-chief regarding possible misconduct
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 th… - Guidelines
Cooperation between research institutions and journals on research integrity and publication misconduct cases
Research institutions and journals both have important duties in the management of research misconduct and adherence to publication ethics. It is therefore important for institutions and journals to communicate and collaborate effectively. These COPE guidelines deal with the expectations and processes for communication. Ensuring research and publication integrity requires that institutio… - Guidelines
Guidance for Editors: research, audit and service evaluations
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 regu…