Research Ethics

JOMS publishes research involving people, human data and tissue, and animals only when it has been conducted ethically. This policy follows the Declaration of Helsinki, the ICMJE Recommendations and COPE guidance.

1. Research involving human participants

• Studies involving human participants, human data, or human tissue or samples must be approved by a recognised research ethics committee or institutional review board before the study begins.
• The Methods section must give the name of the committee, the approval number and the date of approval.
• Written informed consent must be obtained from every participant, or from a parent or legal guardian for children and for adults who cannot give consent. The manuscript must state how consent was obtained.
• If the committee waived the need for approval or consent (for example, for a retrospective study of anonymised records), the manuscript must say so and give the reason.

2. Case reports and case series

• Written informed consent to publication must be obtained from the patient, or from a parent or legal guardian if the patient is a child or cannot consent, or from the next of kin if the patient has died.
• Consent must cover the case details and any images, including clinical photographs, radiographs and histology images.
• Every case report must include a statement that consent to publication was obtained. The signed consent form is kept by the authors and must be provided to the journal on request.
• Where consent cannot be obtained, the Editor-in-Chief decides whether publication is justified, and the article must explain why consent was not obtained.
• Case reports should follow the CARE guidelines, and case reports and case series should be identified as such in the title.

3. Privacy and anonymisation

• Manuscripts must not contain names, initials, hospital or record numbers, exact dates of birth or admission, addresses, or any other information that could identify a participant.
• Identifying features must be removed from images. Covering the eyes alone is not enough anonymisation.
• Details must not be changed to hide identity if the changes would alter the scientific meaning. In that case, consent to publication is required.

4. Clinical trials

Clinical trials must be registered in a public registry recognised by the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform before the first participant is enrolled. The registry name and registration number must be given at the end of the abstract. Trials should be reported according to CONSORT.

5. Research involving animals

Studies involving animals must be approved by an institutional animal care and use committee or an equivalent ethics body, with the name, approval number and date given in the Methods. Studies should be reported according to the ARRIVE guidelines.

6. Concerns

If the editors have concerns about the ethical conduct of a study, they may ask the authors for the approval documents or consent forms, contact the authors' institution, or reject the manuscript. Concerns about published articles are handled under the Corrections, Retractions and Withdrawals policy and the COPE flowcharts.