Protection of Human Subjects and Animals in Research Policy

When reporting about human participants in experiments, the authors should state whether the procedures used were in line with the relevant committee on human experimentation's ethical criteria (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008.

If there is any uncertainty about whether the research adhered to the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must describe their methodology and declare that the institutional review board explicitly authorized the controversial parts of the study.

When describing animal research, authors should state whether the institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed.