We describe our service as ICMJE and COPE compliant. These are the two bodies whose guidelines journal editors and ethics committees use to judge whether a manuscript was prepared honestly. This page explains what each one is and how we follow it.
ICMJE — authorship and manuscript standards
The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) publishes the recommendations most biomedical journals use to define who qualifies as an author and how manuscripts should be prepared and disclosed.
The core ICMJE authorship criteria require that each named author has made a genuine intellectual contribution, has approved the final version, and is accountable for the work. We follow this in two concrete ways:
- We do not sell or assign authorship. The researchers named on a manuscript must be its genuine intellectual authors.
- We disclose writing assistance as ICMJE requires, so the support we provide is declared rather than hidden.
COPE — publication ethics
The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) provides the guidance editors rely on to handle integrity issues — authorship disputes, plagiarism, data concerns, and conflicts of interest. Aligning with COPE means our process is built to avoid the situations that trigger editorial concern in the first place: clear authorship, original text, accurate citations, and transparent disclosure of any assistance.
For industry-sponsored research: GPP 2022
For company- and industry-sponsored biomedical research, we additionally follow the Good Publication Practice (GPP 2022) guidelines, which set the transparency and accountability standards expected for sponsored publications.
Why this protects you
Compliance is not a badge — it is what keeps your manuscript from being desk-rejected on ethical grounds and what protects your reputation after publication. By signing an authorship declaration before work begins and disclosing our role as required, we make sure the support you receive strengthens your submission rather than creating a hidden liability.