Ethics Approval
Human subjects, human material, or human data used in scientific research must meet the requirements of the Declaration of Helsinki and have been approved by a competent ethics committee.

Benefits and Harms of Research
The ethics of research should respect the dignity and rights of the participants, the individuals or groups with connections to the participants or to the research topic, and the communities where the research takes place. The rights of non-human life, tangible and intangible heritage, and natural resources should also be respected in research.

Research can result in a number of harmful consequences, as follows:

• Injury to human participants during research

• Unnecessary suffering for non-human animals as a result of experimentation

• Material compromise of tangible heritage

• Disruption of ecosystems

Additionally, harm can result indirectly as a consequence of the publication of a research project or scholarly communication like

• Stigmatizing a vulnerable group or the misuse of research results (e.g., public policies that undermine human rights or mishandling information to threaten public health).

New Clinical Tools and Procedures
The manuscript must clearly explain why a new procedure or tool was deemed more appropriate than usual clinical practice to meet the clinical need of the patient when reporting it in a clinical setting, such as a technical advance or case report. In the case of a new procedure already approved for clinical use at the authors' institution, no such justification is required. Whenever a novel procedure or tool is used experimentally, ethics committee approval and informed patient consent are required, even if there is no clear clinical advantage.

Approval for Retrospective Ethics
Ethics committee approval does not usually come into effect retrospectively, which means that a manuscript may not be considered for peer review if it has not received approval prior to commencement. When such cases arise, the Editor makes the decision whether to proceed with peer review.

Ethnicity, Race, and Racism
Racism is unethical and scientifically unfounded. In severe cases, editors may refuse publication of (or retract post-publication) racist content or request modifications. It is sociopolitical to construct concepts such as race and ethnicity. In terms of modern biological criteria for the identification of geographical races or subspecies, humans do not have biological races.

When such cases arise, the Editor makes the decision whether to proceed with peer review.
Researchers should explain how they collected data from human participants:

• What classification terms were provided (by the participants, researchers, or third parties)?

• What tactics were used to establish the participants' racial/ethnic identity (by the researchers, the participants, or third parties)?

In your Manuscript's “Methods” Section, you Should Provide this Information.

Consent to Participate
Research involving human participants should obtain informed consent from participants (or their parents or legal guardians in the case of children under 16), and a statement to this effect should appear in the manuscript.
Studies that involve vulnerable groups (such as unconscious patients), in which coercion may occur (such as prisons), or in which consent may not have been fully informed, will be considered by the editor at his or her discretion, and may be referred for further review to an internal editorial oversight group. In order to collect personally identifiable data, such as biomedical, clinical, and biometric information, consent must be obtained.
Articles describing human transplantation must include a statement stating that no organs or tissues were obtained from prisoners, as well as the institution(s)/clinic(s)/department(s) through which organs or tissues were obtained. A copy must be provided if needed.