COPE
Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)- 1997
COPE- INTRODUCTION
• Ethics is a branch of philosophy.
• It comprises a set of values, principles and guidelines for righteous
behavior.
• Research is one such domain where there was lot of scope for ethical
violations due to lack of any probing authority until the Nuremberg
trials were held and Nuremberg Code was framed.
• It is a significant document that questioned and accused the doctors
for holding the life threatening research in concentration camps.
• Right from institutional to global level there is a thrust on scrutiny of
research papers before publishing
• Every research project has to be screened and passed by the
Institutional Review Boards
• The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) is a forum for editors of
peer-reviewed journals to discuss issues related to the integrity of the
scientific record.
• It supports and encourages editors to report, catalogue and instigate
investigations into ethical problems in the publication process.
ORIGIN AND
DEVELOPMENT OF COPE
It is committed to
Educate and support publishers
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF COPE
Committee on Publication ethics is a committee
established in the year 1997.
The founders were Mike Farthing, Richard Smith and
Richard Horton.
In April 1997, the first COPE meeting took place, a
relatively informal gathering of a group of concerned
editors, prompted by Mike Farthing,
• GUIDANCE and BEST PRACTICES
• Core Practices
Allegations of misconduct
• Journals should have a clearly described process for handling allegations
• Policies should include how to handle allegations from whistleblowers
Authorship and contributorship
• Clear policies (that allow for transparency around who contributed to
the work and in what capacity) should be in place
• Complaints and appeals
• Journals should have a clearly described process for handling
complaints against the journal, its staff, editorial board or publisher
• Conflicts of interest / Competing interests
• There must be clear definitions of conflicts of interest and processes
for handling conflicts of interest of authors, reviewers, editors,
journals and publishers, whether identified before or after publication
• Data and reproducibility
• Journals should include policies on data availability
• encourage the use of reporting guidelines and registration of clinical trials
• and other study designs according to standard practice in their discipline
• Ethical oversight
• Ethical oversight should include, but is not limited to,
• policies on consent to publication,
• publication on vulnerable populations,
• ethical conduct of research using animals,
• ethical conduct of research using human subjects,
• handling confidential data and ethical business/marketing practices
• 8. Journal management
• A well-described and implemented infrastructure is essential,
• including the business model, policies, processes and software for
efficient running of an editorially independent journal,
• efficient management , training of editorial boards , editorial and
publishing staff
•
• Intellectual property
• All policies on intellectual property, including copyright and publishing
licenses, should be clearly described.
• In addition, any costs associated with publishing should be obvious to
authors and readers.
• Policies should be clear on what counts as prepublication that will
preclude consideration.
• What constitutes plagiarism and redundant/overlapping publication
should be specified
• 10. Post-publication discussions and corrections
• Journals must allow debate post publication either on their site,
through letters to the editor, or on an external moderated site, such
as Pub Peer.
• They must have mechanisms for correcting, revising or retracting
articles after publication
•
• E- Learning
• This course is designed for editors and publishers who want to improve their
understanding on publication ethics and to provide the tools and knowledge
needed to address the many issues they face when editing a journal.
• Free introductory module
• COPE is offering non-members working on scholarly journals the chance to
try out our eLearning programme, with free access to the module,
• An Introduction to Publication Ethics.
• Multiple modules
• There are ten modules to choose from, and members are free to
complete them in any order. Each module includes case studies and
questions so that they can review their knowledge. Some modules
may also include audio or video podcasts.
• Certificate of completion
• The course does not lead to a formal qualification but one can print a
certificate of completion. Non-members can register on the website.
• Cases
COPE members can bring cases to the quarterly COPE Forum for
advice.
• The COPE Forum meets in London, UK and is open to members and
appropriate guests.
• Invitations and minutes (including advice and follow-up information
on all cases discussed) are circulated to all COPE members.
• Attendance is possible in person or by telephone.
• Members who are signed in, are invited to submit a case in advance,
which are anonymised before circulation and then discussed during
the Forum, with advice given on appropriate action.
• Members are asked to provide feedback about their cases at
subsequent meetings.
• All cases submitted to the Forum (suitably anonymised and without
any information about the submitting journal) are entered into
the Database.
• This database is accessible to COPE members and may be helpful in
answering queries about cases similar to those that have been
discussed before.
• It will also form a useful research tool.
• Members furthermore have the facility to obtain confidential advice
on sensitive ethical issues or between Forum meetings from COPE's
chairman or officers.
• When a complaint is raised, COPE does not attempt to investigate, nor
to offer judgment on, the rights or wrongs of specific allegations of
research or publication misconduct.
• COPE’s investigations and reports are therefore focused solely on
whether the journals involved behaved according to the COPE code of
conduct and best practice guidelines for editors.
• Other facilities
Other membership benefits include:
• Free attendance at annual seminar
• Website with members area: blog, wiki, sample letters, presentations
• Publication ethics audit tool
• Newsletter
• eLearning program on how to handle and prevent misconduct
• COPE will email editors on occasion to inform them of relevant initiatives, and
invite them to participate in Forums, workshops and meetings.
• COPE may also contact them in reference to specific cases involving their journals.
• CONCLUSION:
• COPE emerged as a non-profit organization initially in 1990’s however later on it
had become more organized as there was need for office bearers.
• It was started with 200 members in 2000, by 2017 it had members exceeding
12,500 from 103 countries.
• The Code of Conduct introduced in 2017 are applicable to all involved in
publishing scholarly literature: editors and their journals, publishers, and
institutions.
• The Core Practices should be considered alongside specific national and
international codes of conduct for research.
• It has also extended some of the following services to its members.
Free attendance at annual seminar, Website with member’s area: blog,
wiki, sample letters, presentations, Publication ethics audit tool,
Newsletter and eLearning program on how to handle and prevent
misconduct.
• Through all these initiatives many of the chair persons of COPE felt that
they can inculcate an ethical atmosphere and culture amongst the
researchers in their research work
