Protection of Human Subjects and Animals in Research Policy

When reporting experiments involving human subjects, authors must clearly state whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible institutional and/or national ethics committee, as well as the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000.

If there is any uncertainty regarding adherence to the Helsinki Declaration, authors must provide a detailed explanation for their chosen methodology and demonstrate that the institutional review board explicitly approved all aspects of the study in question.

For studies involving animal experimentation, authors must confirm that all procedures complied with the institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals.

This guidance is in alignment with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals,” February 2006.