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COPE Digest
June 2025
AI dilemmas discussion
Welcome to the June issue of COPE Digest
The summer and winter solstices have passed, depending on your hemisphere. I admit to a brief glance at solstice celebrations, but a Google AI query yielded a notation that some cultures use the solstice as a time for gratitude, introspection, and setting intentions. I’ll take my cue from this for the July COPE Digest letter, beginning this month’s letter with some notes of gratitude. We are thankful for the work that COPE Council member Anubhav Pradhan has done to support COPE’s efforts in the subcommittees focusing on books, DEIA issues, membership and the arts, humanities and social sciences. As he ends his term on the COPE Council, we wish him well.
I personally wish to thank the COPE staff for an incredible amount of very technical support for our recent COPE Council retreat, which was held via Zoom across the world’s time zones. My head still hurts thinking about all the details that were perfectly in line to pull off this many-day event.
The retreat sessions focused on some “big picture” thinking aligned with our 2025-2028 strategic plan. In line with our goals related to Integrity and Education we discussed core principles of publication ethics. We discussed the importance of linking core values, such as transparency and fairness, to core principles to help users implement them. COPE guidance cannot address every nuance, of course, but providing that linkage might help members find an ethical approach, even if the exact guidance isn’t available.
With the same goals of Integrity and Education in mind, we will review all the different types of guidance we publish. It is unclear to many, for instance, that the opinions presented in case discussions don’t have the strength of evidence that a guidance document has. In parallel, we will work to make them as useful and discoverable as possible on our website. We hope that this review will make it clearer for you to find and implement the support you need.
A third session explored issues related to batch, or mass, retractions.
READ MORE ([link removed]) >
Nancy Chescheir, COPE Chair
COLLABORATION: COPE GOAL
In this final editorial on COPE’s strategic goals we explore our commitments to collaboration. 'Collaboration' is one of our four core goals with a commitment to actively listen to and bring together stakeholders to explore and provide solutions to the challenges arising in publication ethics.
To do this we will:
* work proactively to identify stakeholders we should be working with;
* focus on expanding our connections with universities and research institutes, and the exchange of knowledge and understanding between publishers, editors, and universities;
* look outside COPE’s traditional membership to make sure that we are serving the community as it evolves.
In this editorial we explain what actions we will be taking to embed collaboration as one of the four goals of COPE's strategy.
COPE EDITORIAL ([link removed]) >
CURRENT COLLABORATIONS
We frequently share news from the organisations we collaborate with, most recently:
* a new toolkit for disability equity from C4DISC;
* new translations of the Think.Check.Submit checklist for authors looking for a trusted journal for their research;
* and webinars with advice on avoiding and preventing paper mills from United2Act.
Find out more about how we currently collaborate with these and other organisations:
COLLABORATIONS ([link removed]) >
** JOURNAL MANAGEMENT
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We continue to develop COPE Focus collections with the latest on the topic of journal management.
Discover our carefully chosen collection of resources for building transparent, ethical, and efficient editorial management empowering independent journals and publications to thrive.
COPE FOCUS JOURNAL MANAGEMENT ([link removed]) >
AUTHORSHIP AND AI TOOLS
AI is transforming research writing as authors use AI tools to help with their paper.
Find out more about disclosing use of AI in writing a manuscript, the production of images, or the collection or analysis of data.
COPE POSITION ([link removed]) >
** JULY FORUM
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TUESDAY 1 JULY 2025
(COPE Members Only)
The next COPE Forum is schedule for Tuesday 1 July. The session will start with a discussion on Emerging AI dilemmas in scholarly publishing ([link removed]) . Following this, COPE Members will present their current cases and seek advice from attendees.
Forum attendees will discuss the following cases, providing feedback and advice to the presenting member:
* Author wishes to withdraw a paper being investigated for plagiarism.
* Conflicts of interest at a scholarly society, and inappropriate access to journal database.
* Financial rewards being offered for identifying major errors.
[link removed]
** SAVE THE DATE!
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17-21 NOVEMBER 2025
We are excited to announce the dates for Publication Integrity Week. This year’s theme "Exploring the landscape of publication integrity together" invites our community to discuss and share insights for scholarly publishing standards. Mark your calendars to join us!
** DIGITAL COMMONS: ETHICAL PUBLISHING PRACTICES
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VIRTUAL
Digital Commons has invited COPE to speak to editors about the latest guidance and standards in publication ethics.
Marie Soulière, representing COPE at this webinar on Wednesday 30 July 2025, will cover:
* the latest guidelines and ethical standards in publishing;
* real-world case studies that highlight common ethical dilemmas and how they were resolved;
* practical advice on how journals can uphold integrity and transparency.
** ASIA PACIFIC ASSOCIATION OF MEDICAL EDITORS
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VIRTUAL
Jason Hu, COPE Council Member, is speaking at the 2025 Asia Pacific Association of Medical Editors (APAME) conference. Jason will part of a plenary session on the topic of artificial intelligence (AI).
The conference is for editors, peer reviewers and early career journal writers and will take place from 6-8 August 2025.
CONFERENCE PROGRAMME ([link removed]) >
** Submitting a guest editorial or opinion piece to COPE
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We welcome guest editorials and opinion articles regarding research and publication ethics from COPE members. Please read the COPE guest editorial policy ([link removed]) before submitting your article.
Managing Editor, Sarah Gillmore, COPE Engagement & Outreach Officer
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