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| 1. | COPE considers cases of possible research misconduct referred by editors and offers advice on what action to take. Currently the committee considers only cases referred by editors. |
| 2. | Cases for consideration by COPE should be sent to: COPE, PO Box 39, Harleston, IP20 9WR United Kingdom cope_administrator@publicationethics.org Tel: +44 (0)379 854181 |
| 3. | It is for the editor to decide what action to take. There is no obligation to follow the advice of the committee. |
| 4. | The cases considered by the committee are published in the annual report. They include the advice given, what action (if any) was taken, and the outcome. |
| 5. | Editors should present their cases as briefly as possible, avoiding extraneous detail, but presenting all relevant information to enable the committee to offer good advice. Examples can be found in the COPE annual reports |
| 6. | Cases must be anonymised to avoid problems of defamation. The identity of the editor presenting the case will not be published in the annual report. |
| 7. | The cases should be anonymised as far as possible without losing relevant content. Editors should not give the names of journals, authors, institutions, countries, or titles of papers and should be as general as possible about essential information. For example, refer to a "common chronic disease" rather than diabetes, if this needs to be mentioned at all, and use the term "study" rather than a randomised controlled trial unless this is critical to the case. |
| 8. | Editors can anonymise reports by removing information, but they should not give false information. If in doubt about the presentation of a case, please contact the administrator (cope_administrator@publicationethics.org) |
| 9. | Editors are encouraged to attend the meeting at which their case is to be presented. |
| 10. | Cases will be edited before inclusion in the final report. |
| 11. | Editors should feedback to the committee what actions they take and the ensuing outcomes (please quote the case reference number). |
