Amsterdam, March 04, 2008 – Elsevier, the world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, announced today the launch of its   Publishing Ethics Resource Kit (PERK).

Launching PERK at the Elsevier Editors’ Conference in Singapore, Mark Seeley, Senior Vice President and General Legal Counsel, described PERK as being “a single point of access for information and guidelines on publishing ethics providing our Journal Editors with the support they need in dealing with issues of publishing ethics.”

PERK is an online resource which contains links to Elsevier and non-Elsevier policy and procedures documents, decision trees and flow charts for dealing with different forms of publishing ethics abuse with the recommended action that can be followed, as well as COPE (  Committee On Publication Ethics) charts for a second opinion. It also contains examples of appropriate letters for various situations and a large resource of useful information structured in the form of Questions and Answers.

As part of our commitment to the protection and enhancement of the peer-review process, we have a responsibility to assist the scientific community in all aspects of publishing ethics” says Martin Tanke, Managing Director S&T Journal Publishing. “In the past months we have been the first major scientific publisher to commit to full membership for all its publications in COPE and we are one of six scientific publishers participating in the CrossRef Association’s pilot plagiarism software called   CrossCheck. By launching the Publishing Ethics Resource Kit as well, we improve our efforts even more to meet this responsibility”.

 

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About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. Working in partnership with the global science and health communities, Elsevier’s 7,000 employees in over 70 offices worldwide publish more than 2,000 journals and 1,900 new books per year, in addition to offering a suite of innovative electronic products, such as   ScienceDirect,   MD Consult,   Scopus, bibliographic databases, and online reference works.

  Elsevier is a global business headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and has offices worldwide. Elsevier is part of   Reed Elsevier Group plc, a world-leading publisher and information provider. Operating in the science and medical, legal, education and business-to-business sectors, Reed Elsevier provides high-quality and flexible information solutions to users, with increasing emphasis on the Internet as a means of delivery. Reed Elsevier's ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

Media Contacts:
Federica Rosetta
Elsevier
+31 20 485 3359
f.rosetta@elsevier.com

Mark Seeley
Elsevier
+1 781 359 2426
m.seeley@elsevier.com