THANH DO UNIVERSITY RESEARCH GROUP: TRANSLATION OF COPE ETHICAL PUBLICATION GUIDELINES

To raise awareness and foster ethical practices in scientific publishing in Vietnam, the Institution for Research on Education and Knowledge Transfer (REK Institute) at Thanh Do University, in collaboration with the Vietnam Chapter of the European Association of Science Editors (EASE), is translating the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) into Vietnamese. This is the first step in bringing international standards of academic ethics closer to the Vietnamese research community.

COPE is an international non-profit organization founded in 1997 in the United Kingdom by a small group of medical journal editors. By 2022, COPE had over 13,000 members worldwide, including editors, publishers, and individuals interested in academic publishing ethics across all disciplines. Its mission is to define and promote best practices in publishing ethics and assist publishers in adhering to these standards.

Rather than focusing on criticism, COPE aims to educate and support stakeholders in scholarly publishing. The organization provides guidelines, process flowcharts, discussion papers, and online courses to help researchers, editors, publishers, reviewers, and others involved in publishing assess their adherence to COPE’s “Core Practices.” COPE asserts that publishing ethics are essential to maintaining research integrity and reliability, ensuring that scientific knowledge is trustworthy and capable of advancing society.

The documents in the COPE Guide and Tools section are published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, which allows for free sharing, but prohibits derivative works or commercial use. After discussions, COPE has officially authorized the project team to translate and publish the Vietnamese versions, reflecting the organization’s trust and support for spreading ethical publishing practices in Vietnam.

Currently, the translations of the REK Institute research team are being published for free access on the OESR open library page of Thanh Do University via: https://oesr.thanhdo.edu.vn/cope-guideline.