Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics

Articles concerning proposed research will usually be considered for publication without peer
review if the study has received ethics approval, and undergone peer review and been awarded a
grant from a major funding body. Proof of both ethics and funding will be required and authors
should submit the relevant documentation via the online system at submission. Study protocols
without major external funding or ethics approval will generally not be considered.
Ethics for animal experimentation
Ethical approval for the work needs to be obtained from the Institution’s Animal Ethics
Committee (must be local to where the research took place). If such a committee does not exist,
you must comply with institutional, national, and international guidelines.
Ethics for human participants
Similar to work involving animals, all works involving human participants must be approved by
a local Ethics Committee.
All work involving humans subjects, human material, or human data must also be performed in
accordance with the Helsinkiwhich was developed by the World Medical Association outlining
the minimum ethical standards for research on human participants. All manuscripts which
feature human participants or human data must contain a statement on ethics, including the name
of the Ethics Committee which approved the study and the reference number. Any exemptions,
granted by the Ethics Committee, must also be detailed in the manuscript.
If your study involves humans, in anyway, you need to get their informed consent before you
start the study. Informed consent is the permission granted in full knowledge of the possible
12 consequences, typically that which is given by a patient to a doctor for treatment with knowledge
of the possible risks and benefits.
Informed consent, ideally, should be written (signed form from each participant), but in some
instances, verbal consent is permissible, for example, in illiterate participants. The type of
consent received should be agreed upon with the Ethics Committee.