| Journal ETHICS STATEMENTS
Informed Consent
Patients and research subjects have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent. Identifying information, including names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient/subject (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve, so informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt. When informed consent has been obtained it should be indicated in the manuscript.
Human and Animal Rights
When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors must indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach, and demonstrate that an institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study. When reporting experiments on animals, authors must indicate whether the institutional or national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.
Conflict of Interest
Authors must disclose all relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest. Authors are responsible for disclosing all financial and personal relationships that might bias their work. To prevent ambiguity, authors must state explicitly whether potential conflicts do or do not exist. Authors should do so in the manuscript on a conflict of interest notification page that follows the title page, providing additional detail, if necessary, in the cover letter that accompanies the manuscript. Authors should identify individuals who provide writing or other assistance and disclose the funding source for this assistance.
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