A. Protection of human and animal rights

While reporting experiments that involve human subjects, it should be stated that the study was performed according to the Helsinki Declaration (adopted in 1964 and amended in 2004, www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm) and approved by the Research Ethics Committee (REC) or the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the institution where the experiment was performed. A written informed consent should be obtained from all subjects. In the case of an animal study, a statement should be provided indicating that the experiment process, such as the breeding and the use of laboratory animals, was approved by the REC of the institution where the experiment was performed or that it does not violate the rules of the REC of the institution or the NIH Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources [ILAR], National Research Council (NRC), National Academic Press, 1996, pp. 125 www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/labrats/index.html). The authors should preserve raw experimental study data for at least 1 year after the publication of the paper and should present this data if required by the editorial board.

B. Author and Authorship

An author is considered as an individual who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study and whose authorship continues to have important academic, social, and financial implications. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE, 2007) has recommended the following criteria for authorship: (1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and (3) final approval of the version to be published. Authors should meet criteria 1, 2, and 3. These criteria are applicable to those journals that distinguish the authors from other contributors.

C. Prevention of duplicate publication and copyright transfer agreement

Manuscripts are only accepted for publication in journals if they have not been published elsewhere. Manuscripts published in this journal should not be submitted for publication elsewhere. If the author(s) wishes to obtain a duplicate or secondary publication for various other reasons, such as for readers of a different language, he/she should obtain approval from the editors-in-chief of both the first and second journal. In this case, the authors must meet the conditions mentioned in Ann Intern Med 1997;12:36?7, e.g., they should comment on the duplicate or secondary publication in a footnote on the title page of the secondary version. Every author should sign the authorship responsibility and copyright transfer agreement form, attesting that he/she fulfills the authorship criteria. Authors are required to identify their contributions to the work described in the manuscript.

D. Protection of privacy, confidentiality, and written informed consent

The ICMJE (2007) has recommended the following statement for the protection of privacy, confidentiality, and written informed consent: The rights of patients should not be infringed without written informed consent. Identifying details should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless it is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or his/her parents or guardian) provides written informed consent for publication. However, complete patient anonymity is difficult to achieve; therefore, informed consent should be obtained in the event that anonymity of the patient is not assured. For example, masking the eye region of patients in photographs is not adequate to ensure anonymity. If identifying characteristics are changed to protect anonymity, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should take note of this. When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the published article.

E. Conflict of interest

Conflict of interest exists when an author (or the author’s institution), reviewer, or editor has financial or personal relationships that inappropriately influence his/her actions (such relationships are also known as dual commitments, competing interests, or competing loyalties). All authors should disclose their conflicts of interest, i.e., (1) financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony), (2) personal relationship, (3) academic competition, and (4) intellectual passion. These conflicts of interest must be included as a footnote on the title page or in the acknowledgement section. Each author should certify the disclosure of any conflict of interest with his/her signature.