The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE): Objectives and achievements 1997-2012.

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. The COPE cases form the basis for guidance such as the flowcharts, which have proved popular and been translated into several languages. 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.