The next Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF2010) will take place in Torino, Italy, on 2–7 July 2010, under the name Passion for Science. The Scientific Programme will be the core of ESOF2010, hosting round tables, workshops, debates and seminars, which will address the most topical issues in scientific research and explore the interactions between researchers, industry, policy, media, and the wider public. The organiser have launched an open Call for Proposals on their website www.esof2010.org. They say that everyone is welcome to submit proposals according to our guidelines. The deadline is 15 June 2009.

International Congress on Peer Review and Biomedical Publication

10–12 September 2009, Westin Bayshore Hotel, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

JAMA and the BMJ invite abstracts for the Sixth International Congress on Peer Review and Biomedical Publication. Following the successful five previous congresses, the sixth congress will provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of new research on peer review and scientific publication. Abstracts on any aspect of editorial and funding peer review, scientific publication and information exchange will be considered.

Abstracts are due by 1 March 2009.

More details and links to reports of research presented at previous Congresses are available on the Peer Review Congress website.

Attached here (Download PDF, 164kb) are the agenda and materials for the next Forum on Tuesday 2 December at 3–5pm, in the Boardroom, Woburn House, 20 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9HQ.

Abstracts for the 2009 ORI Research on Research Integrity Conference are due by 24 November 2008. The conference will be held at the Niagara Falls Conference Center, Niagara Falls, New York, USA,  on the 15–17 May 2009. Information about the Conference and forms for submitting abstracts can be found here. The draft Conference program will be available by the end of December.

COPE is to engage in a major expansion programme, thanks to increasing support from major publishers. This year alone its membership increased from 450 to over 5000. Until now COPE has been run by a volunteer Council of Editors and those involved in scholarly publishing. Now it is to seek a full-time director.

“COPE has come a long way since it started 11 years ago as a forum for a small group of interested editors to discuss ethical issues. We now have international recognition as an ethical arbiter, our flowcharts on how editors should deal with misconduct such as fraud, fabrication or plagiarism are widely used, and, increasingly, publishers are supporting us and signing up their editors to our code of conduct”, says Dr Harvey Marcovitch, Chairman of COPE. “Now with a full time director we will be able to expand our activities”.

Earlier this year COPE announced that Elsevier has joined its entire catalogue of journals. Now three more major companies have followed suit, Springer Science+Business Media, Taylor & Francis and Wiley–Blackwell. This means that 5300 Editors are now members of COPE.

Taylor & Francis Group said it was pleased to facilitate all its journals becoming members of COPE. “Like other major journal publishers, we are committed to best practice in the ethical publication of research and scholarly material, and we welcome the chance to give our network of Editors and learned societies the opportunity to draw on the expertise and resources of COPE. We believe that unambiguous and consistent ethical guidelines will enhance the quality of published research.”

Peter Hendriks, President, STM Publishing, Springer Science+Business Media commented: “As a trusted partner of the scientific research community, we take plagiarism and other unethical practices that threaten the peer-review system, which serves all partners in the publishing process, very seriously. We are delighted to be partnering with COPE so that we, our authors and Editors have an authoritative, conflict-of-interest free resource to rely upon when needed.”

Eric Swanson, Senior Vice-President, Wiley-Blackwell, said “We are delighted to be able to formalise our partnership with COPE to cover all our journals. Instances of plagiarism, false authorship and unethical publishing behaviour are now, unfortunately, becoming more frequent. Working with COPE will provide us with more expert support and our societies, Editors and journals will all benefit from industry-wide best practice.”

The Council of Science Editors International Scholarship Program provides support for Editors from developing nations to attend CSE Annual Meetings.  Several scholarships will be offered to CSE’s 52nd Annual Meeting from 1–5 May 2009 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. The scholarships are intended for Editors in developing countries who contribute to the editorial content of journals in the sciences, medicine or health care. Applications from others who work in the field of scientific publications will also be considered. Each funded scholar will receive free registration to the conference (including hotel stay and all meals) and partial reimbursement for travel expenses. Recipients of the 2009 CSE International Scholarships may participate in a session during the annual meeting and may be asked to write a summary of their experience for possible publication in the CSE journal, Science Editor.

Eligibility

CSE defines 'developing nations' as those countries that are eligible for free or low-cost access to biomedical literature through the World Health Organization’s Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI). Lists of countries eligible for free access (Band 1) or low-cost access (Band 2) are available on the HINARI website. Only applicants from countries listed in either Band 1 or Band 2 are eligible to receive a CSE International Scholarship. Anyone interested in applying should first check their eligibility by referring to the Band 1 and Band 2 lists.

Applications

Applicants can access information about the International Scholarships and an application here. This information is also linked via the 2009 Annual Meeting button on the CSE homepage. Applications must be submitted online by 5 October 2008. No mailed, emailed or faxed applications will be accepted.

Selection process

Scholarships will be awarded based on applicants’ responses to several questions. Their reasons for seeking to attend the CSE Annual Meeting, clarity of expression, and a thoughtful discussion of how they plan to use, apply and share the knowledge gained at the meeting will reflect positively on the candidates’ applications.

Notification

Scholarship winners will be notified by email in early November 2008.

COPE has established a Grant Scheme to fund research in the field of publication ethics. The Scheme is designed to provide financial support to any member of COPE for a defined research project that is in the broad area of the organisation’s interests, and specifically in the area of ethical standards and practice in academic publishing. The project should have a specific goal and be intended to form the kernel of a future publication.

A maximum sum of £5000 will be allocated to any one project, but applications for smaller sums are welcome. The application process is biannual with deadlines of 1st June and 1st December. The second tranch for the year is now open for application. The deadline for applications is 1st December 2008.

The terms and conditions of the Grant are here.

COPE has updated its flowcharts to include two new charts and a guide to spotting authorship problems

Probably COPE's greatest resource and certainly its most practical are the 14 flowcharts that provide algorithms for Editors to follow when they suspect publication misconduct. The flowcharts were written and designed as a step-by-step guide for Editors to deal with the most common breaches of publication ethics that crop up repeatedly in scientific and biomedical journals before and after publication. Originally launched in November 2006, the flowcharts have been informed by the hundreds of cases from around the world on which COPE has advised since its foundation in 1997. These breaches range from duplicate (redundant) publication through to plagiarism to out-and-out fraud.

With the launch of the new COPE website, all the flowcharts have been redesigned and two new charts have been added, along with a guide to spotting authorship problems. The new charts offer advice on 'What to do if you suspect reviewer misconduct' and 'What to do if you suspect gift, ghost or guest authorship'. All flowcharts are freely available to download as PDFs here.

The flowcharts are the copyright of COPE but we allow their reuse with appropriate accreditation for no charge. To apply for permission to reuse the flowcharts, contact the Administrator here.

We are always looking for new translations, if you have the ability to translate the flowcharts into a language not yet represented, please contact the Administrator here.

2009

Tuesday 3 March 2009 (deadline for cases 17 February)

Tuesday 2 June 2009 (deadline for cases 19 May)

Wednesday 2 September 2009 (deadline for cases 19 August)

Wednesday 2 December 2009 (deadline for cases 18 November)

Annual Seminar

Friday 27 March 2009, 9.30am–4.30pm.

All Forum meetings are 3–5pm, in the Boardroom, Woburn House, 20 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9HQ

Cases for discussion must be submittied online here no later than two weeks before each meeting.

Editors will benefit from new partnership

13 February 2008

London, UK.

The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) 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, 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 for an external authoritative opinion on difficult cases", said Martin Tanke, Managing Director, Elsevier Science & Technology Journals Publishing.

Editors from Elsevier can benefit from attending the COPE meetings, scheduled every three months, to discuss complex ethical problems that 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, Chair 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.