Studies on patients or volunteers require ethics committee approval and informed
consent, which should be documented in the paper. Patients have a right to privacy
that should not be violated without informed consent. Identifying information, including
names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions,
photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes
and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication.
Informed consent for this purpose requires that an identifiable patient be shown
the manuscript to be published. Authors should disclose to these patients whether
any potential identifiable material might be available via the Internet as well
as in print after publication. Patient consent should be written and archived with
the journal, the authors, or both, as dictated by local regulations or laws. We
decide that patient confidentiality is better guarded by having the author archive
the consent and instead providing the journal with a written statement that attests
that they have received and archived written patient consent. When informed consent
has been obtained, it should be indicated in the published article.
Nonessential identifying details should be omitted. Informed consent should be obtained
if there is any doubt that anonymity can be maintained. For example, masking the
eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity. If
identifying characteristics are de-identified, authors should provide assurance,
and editors should so note, that such changes do not distort scientific meaning.
Patient identifiers will not be published in WRA Journals, unless written informed
consent is given and the content is essential for the scientific purpose and merit
of the manuscript. Photographs of subjects showing any recognizable features must
be accompanied by their signed release authorizing publication, as must case reports
that provide enough unique identification of a person (other than name) to make
recognition possible. Failure to obtain informed consent of patient prior to submission
would result in manuscript rejection.
For education journal there should be ethics board approval for human research or
consent obtained from participants or their parents/guardians. The rest policy is
as above where patients will be substituted by participants or their parents.
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