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JULY 2025
Guest edited guidelines
** NEW: Guest edited collections guidance
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Today, COPE and STM (the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers) launch two complementary sets of guidance designed to support journals in effectively managing guest edited collections.
Guest edited collections, often published as special issues or themed volumes, curated by experts in a specific field, play an important role in scholarly publishing offering a focused exploration of contemporary topics, emerging trends, or specialised areas of study. However, guest edited collections have been accompanied by increasing challenges, including coordinated attempts to manipulate the publishing record and instances of guest editors perpetrating fraudulent behaviour.
In response to these publication integrity concerns raised by publishers, editors, and the scholarly community, COPE published an initial discussion document on best practices for guest edited collections and hosted a Forum discussion on the topic in 2023. This timely and well-received discussion and document highlighted vulnerabilities facing journals and publishers. The scholarly community further recognised the importance of developing formalised best practices to both support the vital role of guest edited collections and protect against their misuse.
Today marks an important milestone, as COPE and STM jointly publish two new, complementary documents.
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** COPE guideline: Guest edited collections
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Managing guest edited collections requires vigilance and integrity. COPE's new guideline supports editors and publishers in recognising and preventing unethical practices such as citation cartels, inappropriate commissioning, and peer review fraud.
The guideline emphasises the importance of thoroughly vetting guest editors, setting clear expectations, and upholding journal standards. Editors-in-chief and journals remain responsible for all guest content, and the guideline provides clear direction on pausing peer review if misconduct is suspected. Explore the guideline to strengthen your editorial processes and safeguard research integrity.
SEE COPE GUIDELINE ([link removed]) >
** STM document: Guest editors issues validation and audit
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This guide, created by STM’s Research Integrity Committee with input from across the publishing community, complements COPE’s formal guidance by offering step-by-step advice for validating guest editors and auditing special issues at key stages of the editorial process.
SEE STM GUIDE ([link removed]) >
While STM aims to make this guidance accessible to all editors and publishers, there is concern that its details could be misused by bad actors to bypass the quality and integrity measures of journals. Therefore, the STM document is currently available to Members-only of various organisations.
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