publicationethics.org doaj.org oaspa.org wame.org
Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open
Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME)
are scholarly organizations. All have seen increases in the number, and range in quality, of membership
applications. Our organizations have collaborated to identify Principles of Transparency & Best Practice
for Scholarly Publications. These principles form the basis of the criteria by which suitability for membership
is assessed by COPE, DOAJ and OASPA, and part of the criteria on which membership applications are
evaluated by WAME.
Principles of Transparency& Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing
In the event that a member organization is found to have violated these best practices, or other specific requirements
of the organization, OASPA/DOAJ/COPE/WAME shall in the first instance try to work with them in order to address
any concerns that have been raised. In the event that the member organization is unable or unwilling to address these
concerns, their membership in the organization may be suspended or terminated. All of the member organizations
have procedures for dealing with concerns raised about member journals.
Each organization also has their own, additional criteria which are used when evaluating applications. The organizations will not share lists of publishers or journals that failed to
demonstrate that they met the criteria for transparency and best practice. This is the third version of a work in progress (published January 2018); the first version was posted on
the COPE website on January 2014 and a second version in June 2015. We encourage its wide dissemination and continue to welcome feedback on the general principles and
the specific criteria.
Website NAME OF JOURNAL Peer review process Ownership and management
Governing body
Editorial team/contact
information
Copyright and Licensing Author fees
allegations of research
misconduct
Publication ETHICS PUBLISHING SCHEDULE ACCESS
Archiving Revenue sources Advertising Direct marketing
A Journal’s website, including the text
that it contains, shall demonstrate that
care has been taken to ensure high
ethical and professional standards.
It should:
– contain an ‘Aims & Scope’ statement
and the readership clearly defined.
– include a statement on what a journal
will consider for publication including
authorship criteria e.g. not multiple
submissions, redundant publications)
– ISSNs displayed clearly
(separate for print and electronic).
It must not:
– contain information that might
mislead readers or authors.
– attempt to mimic another journal/
publisher’s site.
The Journal name shall be unique.
It must not:
– be one that is easily confused
with another journal.
– mislead potential authors and
readers about the Journal’s origin
or association with other journals.
Journal content must be clearly marked
as whether peer reviewed or not. Peer
review is defined as obtaining advice on
individual manuscripts from reviewers
expert in the field who are not part of
the journal’s editorial staff.
The journal’s website should:
– clearly describe this process, as well
as any policies related to the journal’s
peer review procedures including the
method of peer review used.
The journal’s website should not:
– guarantee manuscript acceptance
or very short peer review times.
Information about the ownership
and/or management of a journal
shall be clearly indicated on the
journal’s website.
Publishers should not:
– use organizational or journal names
that would mislead potential authors
and editors about the nature of the
journal’s owner.
Journals shall have editorial boards
or other governing bodies whose
members are recognized experts
in the subject areas included within
the journal’s scope.
The journal’s website should:
– show full names and affiliations
of the journal’s editorial board
or other governing body.
Journals shall provide the full names
and affiliations of the journal’s editors
on the journal website as well as
contact information for the editorial
office, including a full address.
The policy for copyright shall be
clearly stated in the author guidelines
and the copyright holder named on all
published articles.
The journal’s website should:
– show licensing information clearly
described in guidelines.
Licensing terms shall be indicated
on all published articles, both HTML
and PDFs.
If authors are allowed to publish under
a Creative Commons license then any
specific license requirements shall be
noted. Any policies on posting of final
accepted versions or published articles
on third party repositories shall be
clearly stated.
Any fees or charges that are required
for manuscript processing and/or
publishing materials in the journal
shall be clearly stated.
This must be:
– in a place that is easy for potential
authors to find prior to submitting
their manuscripts for review.
OR
– explained to authors before they
begin preparing their manuscript
for submission.
– if no such fees are charged that
should also be stated.
Publishers and editors shall take
reasonable steps to identify and
prevent the publication of papers where
research misconduct has occurred.
This includes but not limited to:
– plagiarism
– citation
– manipulation
– data falsification/fabrication
In no case shall a journal or its editors
encourage such misconduct, or
knowingly allow such misconduct to
take place. In the event that a journal’s
publisher or editors are made aware of
any allegation of research misconduct
relating to a published article in their
journal, the publisher or editor shall
follow COPE’s guidelines (or equivalent).
A journal should have policies on
publishing ethics. These should be
clearly visible on its website, and
should refer to:
– journal policies on authorship
and contributorship
– how the journal will handle
complaints and appeals
– journal policies on conflicts
of interest/competing interests
– journal policies on data sharing
and reproducibility
– journal’s policy on ethical oversight
– journal’s policy on intellectual property
– journal’s options for post-publication
discussions and corrections.
The periodicity at which a journal
publishes shall be clearly indicated.
The way(s) in which the journal
and individual articles are available
to readers and whether there are
associated subscription or pay
per view fees shall be stated.
A journal’s plan for electronic backup
and preservation of access to the
journal content shall be clearly
indicated (for example, access
to main articles via CLOCKSS
or PubMedCentral).
This is in the event that a journal
is no longer published.
Business models or revenue sources
shall be clearly stated or otherwise
evident on the journal’s website.
For example:
– author fees
– subscriptions
– advertising
– reprints
– institutional support
– organizational support
Publishing fees or waiver status should
not influence editorial decision making.
Journals shall state their advertising
policy if relevant including:
– what types of adverts will be considered
– who makes decisions regarding
accepting adverts
– (online only) whether they are linked
to content or reader behavior or are
displayed at random.
Advertisements should not be related
in any way to editorial decision making
and shall be kept separate from the
published content.
Any direct marketing activities,
including solicitation of manuscripts
that are conducted on behalf of the
journal, shall be appropriate, well
targeted, and unobtrusive.
Information provided about the
publisher or journal is expected
to be truthful and not misleading
for readers or authors.
Our COPE materials are available to use under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
Non-commercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works — You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.
We ask that you give full accreditation to COPE with a link to our website: https://publicationethics.org/