Research Ethics, Informed Consent and Trial Registration

Studies Involving Human Participants

All research involving human participants, human material or human data must have been conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Authors must state in the Methods section:

the name of the approving research ethics committee or institutional review board;
the approval reference number; and
the date of approval.

Manuscripts lacking this information will not be sent for review. Where ethical approval was not required, authors must state this and name the body that granted the exemption. A statement that approval "was not necessary" without an identified authority is not accepted.

The editors may request a copy of the approval document at any stage, and reserve the right to contact the approving committee directly.

Informed Consent

Authors must confirm that informed consent was obtained from all participants, or from a legal guardian where the participant was a minor or unable to consent. Where consent was waived, the approving committee must have granted the waiver, and this must be stated.

Case Reports and Identifiable Patient Material

Case reports, case series, and any manuscript containing clinical images, radiographs, photographs, pedigrees or detailed clinical narratives that could permit identification of an individual require documented written informed consent for publication from the patient, or from the patient's legal representative where the patient is deceased or lacks capacity.

The consent must make clear that the material may be published in an open-access journal and will be freely available on the internet. Consent for treatment is not consent for publication.

Authors must retain the signed consent form and must confirm at submission that it has been obtained. The journal may request a copy of the signed form; identifying details in any copy supplied should be redacted.

Anonymisation is not a substitute for consent where any risk of identification remains. Masking the eyes in a photograph is not adequate anonymisation. Where consent cannot be obtained, the manuscript will not be published.

Studies Involving Animals

Research involving animals must state the institutional or national guidelines followed, the name of the approving ethics committee, and the approval number. Authors are required to comply with the ARRIVE 2.0 guidelines and to submit the ARRIVE checklist.

Clinical Trial Registration

JEBMR follows the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials be prospectively registered in a public registry that is a primary register of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, or in ClinicalTrials.gov, before enrolment of the first participant. The registry name, registration number and date of registration must be given at the end of the abstract.

Reports of trials registered retrospectively will be considered only where the reason for late registration is disclosed; the retrospective registration will be noted in the published article.