Conflict of Interest, Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent Policies

Conflict of Interest, Human and Animal Rights, and Informed Consent Policies

Conflict of Interest

A conflict of interest declaration policy refers to a formal policy that a journal may have to require a conflict of interest declaration or disclosure from a submitting author or publication.

'Conflicts of interest arise when authors, reviewers, or editors have interests that are not fully apparent and that may influence their judgments about what is published. They have been described as those that, when revealed later, would make a reasonable reader feel misled or deceived.'

Reviewers

To ensure that the review process is free of conflicts:

• Editors must select a guest editor when there is a conflict of interest concerning an author. Editors must ensure that reviewers are free of conflicts of interest concerning an author.
• Reviewers must contact the editorial office to declare any potential conflicts of interest before assessing an article.

Minor conflicts do not disqualify a reviewer from reporting on an article but will be taken into account when considering the referees' recommendations.

Authors

All authors and co-authors are required to disclose any potential conflict of interest when submitting their article (e.g., employment, consultancy fees, research contracts, stock ownership, patent licenses, advisory affiliations, etc.). If the article is subsequently accepted for publication, this information should be included in the final section.

Editors

Editors must not make any editorial decisions or engage in the editorial process if they have any COI (financial or other) for a submitted manuscript.

An editor may have a COI if a manuscript is submitted from their academic department or institution; in such situations, they must have explicit policies to manage it.

When editors submit their own work to their journal, a colleague from the editorial office should manage the manuscript, and the editor/author should refrain from discussions and decisions about it.

Human and Animal Rights

All research must have been conducted within an appropriate ethical framework. If there is suspicion that the work did not occur within an appropriate ethical framework, the Editors will follow up and may reject the manuscript and/or contact the author's ethics committee. On rare occasions, if the Editor has serious concerns about the ethics of a study, the manuscript may be rejected on ethical grounds, even if ethics committee approval has been obtained.

• Articles conducting any animal or clinical study must contain a statement of compliance with the animal and human ethics committee.
• Research must be conducted in a way that animals are not unnecessarily harmed.
• Registration is required for all clinical trials.

Informed Consent

At RPCFO, patients have a right to privacy that must not be violated without informed consent. Identifying information, including names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that an identifiable patient see the manuscript to be published. Authors must disclose to these patients whether any potentially identifiable material might be available on the Internet as well as in print after publication. Patient consent must be written and archived with the journal, authors, or both, as determined by local regulations or laws. Non-essential identifying details should be omitted. Informed consent must be obtained if there is any doubt that anonymity can be maintained. For example, masking the eye region in patient photographs is an inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors must ensure, and editors must note, that such alterations do not distort the scientific meaning. When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the published article.