Presse Med
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Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) was founded in 1997 by a small number of UK medical editors as a self-help group to discuss troubling ethical cases. COPE now has over 7000 members working in many disciplines from all parts of the world. COPE members may bring anonymised cases to a quarterly Forum where other members offer advice. ⋯ COPE expects its members to follow its Code of Conduct and will hear complaints that members have broken this code. Apart from complaints against members, COPE does not investigate individual cases but exists to provide advice on publication ethics and promote good practice among journal editors and publishers. Most of COPE's guidance is freely available to the public at www.publicationethics.org.
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Research integrity is not negotiable, but we regularly observe research misconduct, and journals are victims or guilty. Journals do not have the objective to assess research integrity: that's the Institutions' roles. Journals discover research misconduct when articles are reviewed (an editor or a reviewer detect signals), or after the article's publication when a reader or a whistleblower call the journal. ⋯ The Open Access facilitated the creation of many journals. Some journals are excellent and got an impact factor; most journals have a poor quality and don't follow the publications ethics standards. When errors and fraud are identified, journals can publish 3 statements: erratum for errors, expression of concern for errors or fraud when evidence is not established, and retraction when evidence is obvious.