Research Ethics: Human & Animal Subjects and Informed Consent

For research involving human participants, studies must be conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki; authors must obtain approval from a recognized ethics committee and state the ethics-approval reference in the manuscript. Informed consent must be obtained from participants, their privacy and data protected, and no identifying information published without written permission.

For research involving animals, the ethical principles of care and use must be observed (the 3Rs: Replacement, Reduction, Refinement), and approval of the relevant animal-care committee must be stated.

The journal reserves the right to request ethics-approval documentation and to reject or retract any work that does not meet these requirements.