WAME (World Assoc. Medical Editors)

WAME (World Association of Medical Editors)

WAME (World Association of Medical Editors) is a nonprofit professional association of editors of peer-reviewed medical journals, founded in 1995 at Bellagio, Italy, that develops and publishes consensus policy statements and recommendations on editorial ethics -- authorship, peer review, conflicts of interest, plagiarism, and correction/retraction practice among them. WAME is one of the four co-authoring bodies, alongside COPE, DOAJ, and OASPA, of the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 22 Aug 2026

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COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) is a separate, broader organization open to editors across all disciplines, not medical journals specifically, and focuses more on individual case-by-case ethics guidance than WAME's policy-statement model -- the two are frequent co-signatories on shared documents but are not the same body.

WAME was founded on 16 March 1995 at Bellagio, Lombardy, Italy, with a mission to foster international cooperation among editors of peer-reviewed medical journals — improving the quality of those journals, promoting professionalism in medical editing through education and self-regulation, and encouraging research into editing practice itself. Membership is open to decision-making editors of peer-reviewed medical journals worldwide.

What WAME publishes

WAME’s core output is a set of consensus policy statements and recommendations covering editorial ethics topics: authorship criteria, conflicts of interest in editorial decision-making, peer review conduct, plagiarism and other publication misconduct, and — more recently — the use of generative AI in scholarly writing and editorial workflows. These sit alongside, and are frequently cross-referenced by, the equivalent guidance from COPE.

Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing

WAME is one of four co-authoring organizations — with COPE, OASPA, and DOAJ — of the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, a shared 16-principle document (v1 2013 through v4 2022) that underlies journal-vetting criteria used by DOAJ and others; see DOAJ vs. Beall’s List vs. Think.Check.Submit for how that plays out in practice.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is WAME the same as COPE?

No. WAME is specific to editors of peer-reviewed medical journals and publishes its own policy statements; COPE is open across disciplines and is better known for case-by-case ethics guidance and its flowcharts. The two are separate organizations that co-author some shared documents.

Is WAME membership open to non-editors?

WAME membership is intended for decision-making editors of peer-reviewed medical journals; it is not a general membership body for authors, reviewers, or researchers.

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