Ethical Considerations for Research on Humans and Animals

Revista Información Científica (RIC) declares its adherence to international standards of ethics in scientific publishing, emphasizing its commitment to the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki (for research involving human subjects), the principles of the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS), and the guidelines of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or equivalent of the corresponding institution (for the use of animals for experimental purposes).

Any violation of these ethical principles may result in the rejection of the manuscript, the retraction of previously published articles, and/or notification of the corresponding institutions.

Research involving humans:

  • All studies involving human participants (including surveys, analysis of personal data, observational and experimental studies) must have prior approval from the institution's Research Ethics Committee (REC).
  • Informed consent must be obtained from all participants, or from their legal representatives in the case of minors or incapacitated individuals, following international guidelines. The process for obtaining such consent must be detailed. For retrospective studies with anonymized data, the specific exemption granted by the REC must be indicated.
  • The absolute obligation to protect the identity and privacy of participants is emphasized. Personal data must be rigorously anonymized in the manuscript and supporting files (e.g., radiological images, clinical photographs, genetic data). If identifiable data must be displayed, the participant's specific written informed consent for publication must be included.

Animal research:

  • All studies using vertebrate animals must have prior approval from an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or the institution's equivalent, following recognized guidelines. The approval/protocol number must be provided.
  • Manuscripts must include a statement detailing the efforts made to minimize suffering and the number of animals used, as well as the housing and care conditions.

RIC requires the clinical trial registration identification number as a condition for proceeding with evaluation in this type of research. This must be declared in the Method section.