Medical editors urged to accept ethical code

This article presents reports on the new codes issued by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE.) The London-based COPE, a body established in 1997 to help editors discuss ethical issues, published a draft of the code on its website on February 27, 2004. It says that a final version will be ready in the next few months, and it wants all the editors of medical journals, including its 180 or so members, to sign up the code and agree to be bound by the associated disciplinary procedures. Many of the code's requirements, such as the need to establish systems for managing conflicts of interest among editors' and other journal staff were found to be uncontentious.