London, UK, 13 February 2008 – The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (http://www.publicationethics.org.uk/) is pleased to announce its partnership with Elsevier, publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. More than 2000 journals, the full collection of Health Sciences and Science&Technology journals published by Elsevier (http://www.elsevier.com/), have been added to the list of COPE members.
"Our editors face an increasing number of cases of plagiarism and unethical publishing behaviour. As publishing ethics is a major aspect of the peer-review process, we’re delighted to announce the partnership with COPE which can act as a sounding board for all our editors seeking an external authoritative opinion on difficult cases", said Martin Tanke, Managing Director, Elsevier S&T Journals Publishing.
Editors from Elsevier can benefit from attending the COPE meetings, scheduled every three months, to discuss complex ethical problems which have arisen during the publication process. They will also have access to other editors, their peers, to examine cases of publishing misconduct. In addition, they will be able to use the information and educational services that COPE is developing.
“We are very pleased to have the support of such a major publisher,” said Dr Harvey Marcovitch, chairman of COPE. “It shows that COPE is receiving growing support among publishers – and this in turn will enable us to improve the standards of publications worldwide.”
About COPE
COPE (http://www.publicationethics.org.uk/) 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.
Formed in 1997, the Committee on Publication Ethics' (COPE) major objective is to provide a sounding board for editors who were struggling with how best to deal with possible breaches in research and publication ethics.