Committee on Publication Ethics

Name

Committee on Publication Ethics

Legal name

Committee on Publication Ethics

Website

https://publicationethics.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1997

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Chandlers Ford

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Membership subscription fees: COPE's primary income is derived from membership subscription fees from journal editors, publishers, universities and research institutes, and organizations and individuals involved in publication ethics. Membership types include journal membership, publisher membership (5+ journals), universities and research institutes membership, corporate membership, and individual membership. The organization also maintains that it is a registered charity in the UK.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) is a UK-registered charitable membership organization that provides comprehensive guidance, education, and resources on publication ethics for scholarly publishing stakeholders. It maintains an extensive library of guidance documents, anonymized case studies, flowcharts, and best-practice frameworks for journal editors, publishers, universities, and research institutes, and runs the COPE Forum where members can present and receive peer advice on cases, supported by an eLearning programme and an annual Publication Integrity Week event series.

Product overview

COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) is a membership organization providing a comprehensive platform of guidance, tools, and community resources for publication ethics. The core offerings include the Guidance and Tools suite (positions, guidelines, flowcharts, discussion documents, and 835+ case database), the COPE Forum for case advice, COPE Focus topic collections, eLearning programmes, and the annual Publication Integrity Week. Members have access to additional tools including the Journal Audit, Template Letters, and personalized COPE logos. The organization serves over 14,500 members across 97 countries with resources spanning AI ethics, paper mills, editorial independence, journal management, conflicts of interest, and post-publication review.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• COPE Membership Services Annual subscription membership available in five categories: Journal membership (1-4 journals), Publisher membership (5+ journals), Universities and research institutes membership, Corporate membership, and Individual membership. Members receive access to the COPE Forum, eLearning modules, member-only tools, Template Letters, the COPE Journal Audit, and use of a personalized COPE logo.
• COPE eLearning Programme Self-paced online learning programme providing practical guidance on publication ethics topics including plagiarism, falsification, authorship, conflicts of interest, reviewer misconduct, corrections, retractions, and expressions of concern. A free introductory module is available to non-members; comprehensive modules are available to members.
• Publication Integrity Week Annual virtual event week bringing together the scholarly publishing community across multiple streams covering topics such as the evolution of scholarship, conflicting incentives, collaboration, and practical ethics. Includes videos, summaries, and transcripts of all sessions.

Quantifiable outcome

• Serving 14,500+ members across 97 countries
• +2 more outcomes

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

AI capability2 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and secondary.

• DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCOPE collaborates with DOAJ on producing joint guidance including the 'Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing' (4th version). This partnership brings together key stakeholders in open access publishing to establish and promote best practices.
• OASPA (Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoint producer of Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing. OASPA and COPE collaborate on standards for open access publishing ethics and transparency.
• WAME (World Association of Medical Editors)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWAME collaborates with COPE and other organizations on the 'Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing', providing guidance specifically relevant to medical editors and the broader scholarly publishing community.
• ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCOPE references ICMJE recommendations in its guidance on clinical trial registration and other publication ethics matters. ICMJE standards on clinical trial registration are cited in COPE case advice regarding prospective registration requirements.
• NISO (National Information Standards Organization)secondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerCOPE references NISO Recommended Practices in its guidance, including NISO RP-45-2024 on Communication of Retractions, Removals, and Expressions of Concern (CREC) in the Expressions of Concern guideline.
• World Congress on Research Integrity (WCRI)secondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerCOPE Council Members and Trustees participate actively in the World Congress on Research Integrity, contributing to global discussions on research integrity as reported in COPE news from May 2026.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ): DOAJ is a curated directory and membership-supported registry of vetted open-access journals. It is comparable as a membership-funded scholarly-publishing infrastructure organization and co-produces the Principles of Transparency with COPE.
• European Association of Science Editors (EASE): EASE is a European membership organization supporting science editors across disciplines through guidelines, training, and conferences. It addresses the same editor-and-publisher audience as COPE, with overlapping scope on publication ethics and editorial best practice.
• World Association of Medical Editors (WAME): WAME is a global, nonprofit association of medical editors focused on editorial standards, ethics, and education. It co-produces the Principles of Transparency with COPE and serves an overlapping editor-and-publisher audience with a similar ethics-guidance mandate.
• Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA): OASPA is a membership trade association for open-access publishers that sets standards and runs a membership-vetting process. It is directly comparable to COPE as a membership body in scholarly publishing with a formal Code of Conduct and joint standards output.
• Council of Science Editors (CSE): CSE is a US-based nonprofit membership organization for scientific editors that publishes editor's guides, hosts educational programs, and develops editorial policy. It overlaps directly with COPE in serving editors seeking ethics and editorial-workflow guidance.
• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE): ICMJE sets widely adopted recommendations for medical-journal publishing conduct (authorship, conflicts of interest, clinical-trial registration). It is directly comparable to COPE as a peer-organization setting editorial and publication-ethics standards, and COPE explicitly cross-references ICMJE recommendations in its case guidance.

Others

• National Information Standards Organization (NISO): NISO develops technical standards for information management and is a COPE partner whose Recommended Practices (e.g., NISO RP-45-2024 on Retractions) are referenced in COPE guidance. It is an adjacent standards-setting organization that supports the same scholarly-publishing integrity ecosystem.

Broad incumbents

• STM: International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers: STM is a major global trade association representing the commercial STM publishing industry. While its focus is industry-level advocacy and standards rather than ethics guidance specifically, it operates in the same scholarly-publishing ecosystem as COPE and convenes many of the same institutional stakeholders.
• US Office of Research Integrity (ORI): ORI is the US federal office that oversees research integrity and investigates research misconduct. It is comparable to COPE in advancing research-integrity standards, though its remit is government regulatory oversight of research integrity rather than publishing-specific ethical guidance.
• Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP): SSP is a broader professional membership organization spanning the entire scholarly-communications industry (publishers, vendors, librarians). It overlaps with COPE on publication ethics and education but serves a wider commercial and operational scope beyond ethics guidance.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/C0PE
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/committee-on-publication-ethics

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Committee on Publication Ethics