XHP demands that all research described in its publications be conducted and reported in accordance with the guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and practices according to the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Authors are expected to carry out their research-related activities in accordance with the tenets of honesty, transparency, objectivity, and accountability. Editors-in-chief, Associates Editors, editorial members, reviewers and editorial staff are requested to pay attention to prevent and eliminate author misconduct. XHP reserves the right to reject any manuscript that editors believe does not uphold high ethical standards, even if authors have obtained ethical approval or if ethical approval is not required.
Ethics in Reporting Study Procedures and Findings
All methods used in a study should be adequately described, so that readers may replicate the experiments as they were performed by the authors. The practice of withholding a key step (including but not limited to a reagent, procedure, tool, or technique) or any other piece of information related to the study for proprietary or personal reasons is absolutely unacceptable.
Reporting of results is expected to be complete and accurate. All statistical results of an experiment and/or study project should be presented, including data that does not meet the threshold for statistical significance. The authors must not data picking, which is the practice of presenting incomplete evidence from a series of experiments. The practice of selecting data to exclude negative findings is also prohibited and constitutes scientific misconduct.
All experimental controls should be reported. In addition, the weaknesses of the study design, which may have biased the results, should be reported.
Authors must ensure that all research records, including hand/typewritten documentation, films, and electronic files, are made available upon request at any time during the review process and in perpetuity after the publication of the article describing the study. Patient-related research records should meet the standard regulations of patient privacy and confidentiality. The refusal, disregard, or inability to provide research records that have been requested is considered evidence of scientific misconduct and should prompt an investigation into the need for an article’s dismissal from review or retraction from the journal; the decision to pursue additional actions to address the misconduct should be made at the discretion of the Editors-in-Chief.
Image Manipulation
All images accompanying a publication should be generated in accordance with general ethical standards to ensure integrity of the data presented. Image manipulation or any other form of adjustment that modifies the data is prohibited.
Animal Subjects
Ethical conduct is expected for all procedures related to animal handling, including husbandry, care, and experimentation. For animal studies, it will be clearly stated that approval was obtained from an institutional animal care committee and that all animals received humane care in accordance with relevant institutional and national guidelines and regulations. For example, the US authors should declare the compliance with "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals" prepared by the National Academy of Sciences and published by the National Institutes of Health.
Example: Ethical statement for experiments involving animals
This study was carried out in accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health. The protocol was approved by the Committee on the Ethics of Animal Experiments of the University of **** (Protocol Number: **-****). All surgery was performed under sodium pentobarbital anesthesia, and all efforts were made to minimize suffering.
Human Subjects and Informed Consent For a research study using human subjects, the type of study should be indicated from the following list: randomized controlled trial, cross-sectional study, cohort study, case series, or survey. In addition, the following should be stated: participating institutions; number of subjects; methods of subject selection, recruitment, enrollment, and randomization; and subject withdrawal and completion. Concerning interventions, the criteria for assignment, methods of administration, and duration should be described.
The authors should ensure that the planning, performance, and reporting of human research are in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration as revised in 2013. All authors should seek approval to conduct research from an independent local, regional, or national review body (e.g., ethics committee, or institutional review board). If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the local, regional, or national review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study.
The authors should provide declarative statements that: (a) written informed consent was obtained from each patient prior to enrollment; and (b) the study protocol was approved by the appropriate institutional review committee (IRB), with the name of the committee and institution clearly stated; and (c) the study conformed to the ethical guidelines of the Helsinki Declaration (as revised in 2013). Information that may identify the human subject should be omitted or anonymized, unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. XHP journals reserve the right to ask the author to provide signed informed consent, if necessary.
Examples: Ethical statement for experiments involving human subjects
This study was carried out in accordance with the recommendations of [name of guidelines], [name of committee]. The protocol was approved by the [name of committee]. All subjects gave written informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. This study is registered at [URL]. The registration identification number is [identification number]. (Prospective study)
This study was carried out in accordance with the recommendations of [name of guidelines], [name of committee]. The protocol was approved by the [name of committee]. The individual consent for this retrospective analysis was waived. (Retrospective study)
Clinical Trial Registry
XHP journals adopt the ICMJE’s trial registration policy. Briefly, we require registration of clinical trials in a public trials registry (such as the ClinicalTrials.gov, or other Primary Registries listed here) at or before the time of first patient enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication. The ICMJE does not define the timing of first participant enrollment, but best practice dictates registration by the time of first participant consent. For all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication, the Clinical Trials Registry identifier number and platform should be provided. Observational studies (those in which the assignment of the medical intervention is not at the discretion of the investigator) do not require registration.
Consent for Publication
All case reports and research articles including individual person’s data must have obtained consent for publication. Since human patients are typically involved, case reports should first state that the study was carried out in accordance with the ethical standards of an ethics committee or institutional review board and with the Helsinki Declaration (as revised in 2013) (“Human Subjects and Informed Consent”).The authors should always protect the confidentiality of individual information obtained in the course of research or professional interactions (e.g., between doctors and patients). Any submitted materials (photographs/videos, etc.) including personal details that may identify the participant should be omitted or anonymized, unless the information is essential for scientific purposes. Photographs need to be cropped sufficiently to prevent participants from being recognized, and the eyes must be masked to make the individual unrecognizable. It is therefore almost always necessary to obtain written informed consent for publication from people (or from their parent/guardian) who might recognize themselves or be identified by others (e.g., from case reports or photographs). It may be possible to publish individual information without explicit consent only if public interest considerations outweigh possible harms, it is impossible to obtain consent, and a reasonable individual would be unlikely to object to publication.
Example: Ethical statement for Case reports
The study was performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutions to which we are affiliated and with the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in 2013). Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report.
This study received ethical approval from the institutional review board of xxx Hospital and was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in 2013). Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report and the accompanying images. A copy of the written consent is available for review by the editorial office of this journal.
This single case report of [number of cases] clinical cases was a retrospective analysis of three or fewer clinical cases and is not considered as human research according to the U.S. federal policy [and institutional review board (IRB) regulations of xxx hospital]. An IRB approval was thus deemed unnecessary. This study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in 2013). Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report and the accompanying images.
Please note that consent to participate in research or undergo treatment is not the same as consent for publication of personal information. To obtain consent for publication, authors can use the XHP consent form (download here) or use an institutional consent form. The consent form must specify that the consent materials will be freely available on the internet and that all readers worldwide will be able to view them. Authors do not need to provide a copy of the consent form to the editorial office; however, the editor may ask the authors to provide a copy for verification at any time.
Proper Credit for All Individuals or Organizations Authors are expected to give proper credit to all individuals and organizations involved in the performance of the research described in an article published by XHP journals. Individuals who do not meet the Authorship Criteria but who aided in the research, such as patients and hospital staff, should be appropriately acknowledged in the Acknowledgments section of the manuscript. Organizations that were contracted to perform work related to the research or that acted in a non-paid collaborative manner should be appropriately acknowledged in the manuscript. All funding agencies that provided support for the research or for any of the individuals involved in the research must be appropriately acknowledged in the manuscript.
