Data Sharing Statement
If an original article includes any data that are not publicly available, the authors are required to fill in a data-sharing statement form, which should be submitted along with their manuscript. If the article is accepted for publication, the Data Availability Statement (form) will be published online alongside the article. The data sharing statement form can be downloaded here.
Peer Review File
With a commitment to openness and accountability, and to increase the level of transparency throughout our peer review process, IARJMS has decided to implement a transparent peer review process as an option for all manuscripts submitted to the journal.
The practice will see the inclusion of a “peer review file” (a record of reviewer reports and author replies) in the footnote of the corresponding article. The peer review file will be published online (only) along with the article.
Conflicts of Interest
All authors will be asked to fill in the ICMJE’s unified disclosure form (the latest version). Each author should submit a separate form and is responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the submitted information. The corresponding author should use the information in the form completed by each author to create the COI statement for the manuscript. The statement (but not the forms) must be included along with the submission. The statement should include the initials of the author along with the conflicts of interest. The following examples show the format in which the Conflicts of Interest statement should appear in the manuscript:
“Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.”
“Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form. KSS and VS are former employees of Scanco Medical AG. NV is a current employee of Scanco Medical AG. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.”
If the paper is accepted, the completed ICMJE’s unified disclosure forms will be required and will be published alongside the article.
Ethical Statement
Statement #A is a must for every article, followed by statement #B.
Statement #B should be described ①based on whether the specific content of the article requires an additional ethical statement; ②both in the Methods section and the “Ethical Statement” section of Footnote.
Statement #C should be noted as it is related to Inform Consent.
#A. (a Must) Statement for every article
Please note that all articles submitted to our journal must include an Ethical Statement in Footnote, containing the following wording: “The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.”
#B. The specific content of the article requires an additional ethical statement
(a) Human Experiments
For research involving human experiments, the article must include a statement that ethical approval was obtained (or a statement that it was not required and why), including the name of the ethics committee(s) or institutional review board(s), the number/ID of the approval(s), and a statement that the participants gave informed consent before taking part (or a statement that it was not required and why).
(b) Animal Experiments
For any experiments involving animals, the authors must indicate the nature of the ethical review permissions, relevant licenses (e.g., Animal [Scientific Procedures] Act 1986), and national or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals by which the research was conducted. Describe this information in both the “Method” section and the “Ethical Statement” section on Footnote. For example:
Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Experiments were performed under a project license (NO.: the license number) granted by institutional/regional/national ethics/committee/ethics board of *******, in compliance with ******* national or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals.
(c) Case Report and Case Series
Whenever possible, signed consent should be obtained from the patient (or their parent/guardian) to write and publish a Case Report or Case Series. This is particularly important where the unique nature of the incident being reported makes it possible for the subject to be identified (such as when the patient is over 100 years old; the manuscript has photographs or images or has a rare disease). Beyond that, please keep patient details anonymous whenever possible, for example, occupations unrelated to the disease/condition. If informed consent cannot be obtained, for example, if the patient has passed away and the author is unable to obtain signed consent from the guardian or family of the deceased patient, the authors need to state that they have made the best efforts to contact the relative and that the article has been sufficiently anonymized to cause no harm to the patient or his or her family.
#C. Inform Consent
Written informed consent for the publication of details relating to an individual person must be obtained from that person (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children under 18) for all manuscripts that include images, details, or videos. The consent must be for publication of their details under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) (such that they will be freely available on the internet). If the person has deceased, consent for publication must be acquired from their next of family. A statement that written informed consent for publication was obtained must be included in the manuscript.
To get consent for publication, authors can use the consent form (download the form for patient or the form for participant) or a consent form from their own institution or region, if suitable.
Copyright: If the figures have been reproduced from another source, a letter from the copyright holder (usually the publisher) authorizing the reproduction of the material must be attached to the covering letter
Patient Privacy: Where illustrations include recognizable individuals, living or deceased, great care must be taken to ensure that consent for publication has been given (see “Ethical Statement”). A statement like “This image is published with the patient/participant’s consent.” should be included at the end of the figure legend. Patient anonymity should be preserved. Nonessential identifying details should be omitted. For example, photographs need to be cropped sufficiently to prevent human subjects from being recognized and the eyes and eyebrows (at a minimum) must be masked using Coarse Pixilation to make the individual unrecognizable. However, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are deidentified, authors should provide assurance that such changes do not distort scientific meaning.
STATISTICAL REQUIREMENTS
Regardless of the article type, the presentation of data in your article should follow the SAMPL guidelines for statistics, as shown in detail, linked to: https://www.equator-network.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/SAMPL-Guidelines-3-13-13.pdf Of note:
