Informed consent and Ethics

Informed consent is essential for any research that includes human participants. The Informed Consent policy mandates that individuals involved in research must be fully briefed on all elements of the study. Research activities may only commence when a participant willingly expresses their consent to engage in a particular clinical trial, acknowledging the significance of the research for the progress of medical understanding and the betterment of society. Informed consent is a necessary step before conducting any research with human participants.

It is essential to remove all names and identifying information of human participants from every section of the manuscript, including any supplementary content. A signed informed consent letter is required for the publication of any information that may reveal a participant's identity, including clinical images and videos. The authors should specify in the methods section that informed consent for the publication of identifying information or images has been secured.

Any research that involves human participants, human materials, or human data must be conducted in compliance with the relevant ethical guidelines and must receive approval from a relevant ethics committee. All manuscripts reporting on such research must include a statement confirming this approval, along with the name of the ethics committee. In cases where a study has been exempted from the requirement for ethics approval, this exemption must also be clearly stated in the manuscript. Additional information and documentation to substantiate this exemption should be provided to the Editor-In-Chief upon request. Manuscripts may be rejected if the Editor-In-Chief believes that the research has not been conducted within an appropriate ethical standards.

In specific and rare situations, such as low-risk trials or emergency healthcare situations it may be permissible to waive informed consent for participants in human studies. Authors can submit a request for a waiver of informed consent to MedSciens Publishing Group, but there is no guarantee of approval. MedSciens Publishing Group predominantly supports the requirement of informed consent for all forms of information reporting, regardless of whether it is anonymous or identifiable, and reserves the right to reject any submissions lacking proper informed consent.

Contributors who do not fulfil the authorship criteria should be acknowledged in a separate 'Acknowledgements' section. This section may include individuals who offered technical assistance, writing support, or any form of general aid in the research process.

MedSciens Publishing Group is committed to following COPE guidelines, which require that all authors provide written confirmation of their agreement to any proposed changes in authorship for both submitted manuscripts and published articles. The corresponding author is tasked with ensuring that all authors acknowledge and consent to these changes. The Editor-In-Chief will not take responsibility for resolving any authorship disputes. Changes to the authorship of a published article can only be processed through the publication of a request letter.

Authors are required to provide a consent form that ensures the confidentiality of the patient's name, address, residence, hospital number, and any other personal information. This practice is necessary to adhere to publication ethics and to uphold the privacy rights of all patients.

 

Conflict of Interest

The Association of American Medical Colleges, the Council of Science Editors, and the World Association of Medical Editors define Conflict of Interest (COI) in scientific publications as circumstances where financial or personal factors could potentially influence, or seem to influence, an investigator's professional judgment in the execution or reporting of research.

A potential conflict of interest arises when a researcher, author, editor, or reviewer has a financial or non-financial interest or belief that may compromise their objectivity or unduly influence their decisions. These situations are often referred to as dual commitments, competing interests, or competing loyalties.

MedSciens Publishing Group mandates that authors disclose any potential conflicts of interest related to their research. Each submitted manuscript must contain a 'conflict of interest' section at the conclusion, detailing both financial and non-financial concerns. If authors do not have any conflicts of interest, they are required to explicitly state this with a declaration such as, “I, on behalf of all co-authors, declare that there are no conflicts of interest associated with this manuscript.” The Editor-In-Chief may request additional information regarding any disclosed conflicts. During the peer review process, should any editor or reviewer identify a conflict of interest, they must promptly notify the Journal Management Team, and their name will be removed from the review team for that particular article.