Research involving human participants, minors, patients, vulnerable groups or animals must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee before it began, and must follow the Declaration of Helsinki or relevant animal welfare guidelines.
- Authors state the name of the approving committee and the approval number in the Methods section.
- Informed consent must be obtained from participants (or their guardians) and described in the manuscript; identifying details are removed unless consent to publish was given.
- The editor may ask for approval documents and may decline manuscripts without adequate ethical oversight.
- Research that does not involve people or animals states that ethical approval was not required.
