Research Involving Humans and Animals

Humans

If the studies involved human subjects or tissue, a statement declaring that the research was conducted according to the ethical standards of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the principles in the Declaration of Helsinki. Authors should declare the approval of ethical committee on this work, with details of the approval, such as the ethical committee’s name and reference ID. If a study was granted exemption from ethics approval, the reason for the exemption also needs to be explained along with the name of the ethical committee. The Editorial Office will verify the information when necessary.

If the study publishes findings involving human subjects or tissue, a written informed consent statement is mandatory during the submission stage. The subject must be aware of all the potential influence after the work is published online. At all times, subjects have an inviolable right to privacy. Authors must make best efforts to hide identifiable information of the subject to eliminate unnecessary distress of the patient, such as the face, name, fingerprints, patient ID, hospital name, and eyes. Only when identifiable information is essential to the results and analyses of this study should the information be released upon the written consent and approval from the subjects for publication.

If subjects are vulnerable population, the written informed consent statement should be obtained from their guardians. Any submission involving human trials that lacks the required informed consent statement may be rejected.

Animals

Animal research needs to comply with relevant international, national, and/or institutional guidelines, and studies reporting animal research should be conducted in accordance with rigorous ethical standards regarding to animal welfare. Authors should describe the considerations and measures taken in experiments in terms of animal welfare in Materials and Methods.

Authors could follow the following guidelines involving experiments on animals to achieve high ethical standards:

Authors should provide the experimental approval from the institute’s ethics committee, and it is encouraged to be declared in the Materials and Methods section. If an exemption from ethics approval was granted, authors should provide the ethics committee’s name and describe the reasons. Failure to declare the ethical approval may result in the submission being rejected.