For every research that is related to human it is mandatory for the author to obtain a written consent from the patient (or their parent or guardian in the case of children who are under 16 years of age) and ethical and legal approval (mentioning the body which is approving it). This consent must be available in the manuscript/research paper before applying for the review by a peer review committee and the author must ensure that the manuscript contains an ethics committee approval and informed consent.
The author must avoid using patient’s details like images or videos which can take off the patient’s secrecy and at any point of time if the author needs to publish the patient’s details or images, he must let the patient know the reason for this publishing and he must also obtain a well-informed consent from the patient or from the patient’s relatives. If the details of patient used in the manuscript is unrecognizable and it is not exposing patient’s identity then in such cases it is not mandatory to mention the patient’s consent. Unfortunately, if the patient loses his life during the course of treatment, then it becomes the author’s responsibility to obtain the consent for publication of the manuscript from the relatives of the dead patient.
If the author fails to obtain approval from the ethics committee, the manuscript shall not proceed further for peer review and will be automatically rejected. However, the editor may decide how to proceed in such cases.
It is completely the author's responsibility to include information and documentation (like guidelines, approval committee and its name, its reference number in the manuscript). If the study has got some exemption, then it must also be stated in the manuscript (with the name of the body that granted exemption). The necessary documents related to approval and exemption must be made available to the editor when asked.
In cases where the study is about human organ transplantation it becomes the author’s responsibility to include a statement in the manuscript which declares that organs, tissues are obtained from approved institutes and no organ, tissues were obtained illegally.
After submission of the research, Editor will thoroughly evaluate the study and will also look for animal welfare issues. If the research is not in accordance with human and animal welfare rights or it is lacking any of the above-mentioned criteria for the research, then editor can reject the manuscript on ethical grounds and can ask the author and ethics committee to provide further information.