Credibility Program — COPE, ICMJE & Editorial Board — per year

Overview

Credibility is what indexing evaluators, funders and serious authors are checking for, and it is made of unglamorous things: policies that are actually followed, a board that is actually active, screening that actually happens, and a record of handling problems properly when they arise. Most journals have some of this. Few have all of it, and fewer can show it.

The Credibility Program is a twelve-month package that puts all of it in place and keeps it there. Policies are written for your journal rather than copied; the board is renewed against a defined profile; submissions are screened for similarity, image manipulation and reference integrity; ethics cases are handled with a retainer so the editor is never alone with a difficult one; editors and reviewers are trained; and a compliance review at the end of the year documents where the journal stands.

It is for journals preparing for an indexing application, journals that have had an integrity scare, and institutions that want every journal in their portfolio to meet one standard.

What’s Included

• Policy set written for the journal — peer review, authorship and contributorship, conflicts of interest, research and publication ethics, data and reproducibility, use of AI tools, corrections, retractions and appeals, aligned with COPE core practices and, for biomedical journals, ICMJE recommendations.
• Editorial board renewal — activity review of the current board, role and term definitions, and a targeted search to fill gaps, with appointments made by the journal.
• Integrity-screening allowance — similarity, image and reference screening for an agreed annual volume of submissions, with a written report to the editor for each flag.
• Ethics case-handling retainer — for allegations, disputes and post-publication concerns: we assemble the record, map the case to the relevant COPE flowchart, draft correspondence and decisions for the editor, and document the outcome.
• Training cohort — two sessions for editors and board members and one for reviewers, covering the policies, the screening tools and how cases are handled.
• Annual compliance review — the journal tested against its own policies and the current COPE and ICMJE expectations, with a report suitable for an indexing application or an institutional audit.

How It Works

1. Quarter one: policy drafting and adoption; board activity review and search brief; screening set up on the platform.
2. Quarter two: board appointments made by the journal; first training session; screening and case retainer live.
3. Quarters three and four: screening, case handling and reviewer training continue; policies adjusted as cases reveal gaps.
4. End of year: compliance review and report; renewal offered with adjusted volumes.

Priced annually per journal, with the screening allowance scaled to your submission volume.

What Stays With Your Editors

Every editorial and ethics decision is the editor’s. Screening reports go to the editor, who decides what to do with them. In ethics cases we prepare the record and draft the correspondence; the editor decides and signs. Reviewer selection, editorial assessment and acceptance remain entirely with your editors. Board appointments are made by the journal. NeucitePress runs the process, the screening and the infrastructure.

Important Limitations

• Inclusion in any database is decided solely by that database. NeucitePress prepares, remediates and submits but cannot sell inclusion. Meeting COPE and ICMJE expectations makes a journal credible; it does not guarantee acceptance, citations or ranking.
• COPE membership is applied for by the journal and decided by COPE. We prepare the application if you wish to apply.
• Screening tools detect signals, not proof. Every flag needs human judgment, which is why reports go to the editor rather than triggering automatic action.
• The case retainer covers a defined number of cases per year; unusually complex or numerous cases are scoped separately.

Common Questions

We already say we follow COPE. What is different?
Saying it and doing it are different things, and evaluators check. The program gives you policies that match your actual practice, evidence that they are applied, and a record of cases handled by the book.

Can we join mid-year?
Yes. The program runs twelve months from the start date.

Do you make retraction decisions?
No. We prepare the case and the draft notice; the editor and, where appropriate, the journal’s owner decide.

Request a proposal, or begin with the Journal Health Check.