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Welcome to the July issue of COPE Digest.
Collections (also known as special issues) have been receiving increased attention in recent years as new forms of misconduct emerge and scrutiny of publication practices intensifies. In response to cases of publication record manipulation and misconduct by guest editors, COPE has released a comprehensive new guideline outlining best practices for the ethical management and oversight of guest edited collections.
This new guideline is the culmination of a thorough engagement process with the community. COPE initially released a discussion document on guest edited collections, which was approved by the Education subcommittee, Council Members and the Trustee board, and invited COPE Member feedback during its 2023 Forum. Consultation continued after the Forum, and the resulting formal guideline builds directly on these earlier discussions, incorporating strong recommendations to help journals identify and prevent fraudulent activity and misconduct within guest edited collections.
Importantly, COPE’s guideline reinforces a crucial principle, that the same rigorous ethical standards must apply across all journal content, regardless of collection type or business model.
The recommendations clarify editorial responsibilities, recommend thorough vetting of guest editors, advocate regular audits, encourage transparency at each stage of the guest editing process, and highlight the collective duty to uphold publication integrity.
By consolidating community insights and establishing clear best practices, COPE’s new guideline empowers editors, publishers, and the wider research community to safeguard guest edited collections as a valuable, and trustworthy, component of scholarly publishing. COPE’s leadership on this issue is both timely and essential as journals and publishers face growing issues of systematic manipulation at scale, and its resources will help ensure guest edited collections continue to enrich scholarship without compromising on ethical standards.
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