Research Ethics & Integrity

Human participants and ethics approval

For research involving human participants, identifiable data, or human biological material, authors must provide the relevant ethics committee/IRB approval or explain the applicable exemption or determination, as appropriate. Approval identifiers and dates should be supplied where applicable. The journal may request supporting documentation.

Required ethics approval must be obtained before the research begins, including before participant recruitment or data collection, as applicable.

The journal does not itself determine whether a study was exempt from review. Authors should follow the competent ethics committee or institutional process and explain the basis for any exemption or non-applicability.

• Research involving people follows the Declaration of Helsinki (World Medical Association). Research in India also follows the ICMR National Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical and Health Research Involving Human Participants, alongside the ICMJE Recommendations and COPE guidance.
• Every published article reporting research involving human participants, identifiable human data, or human biological material must include an appropriate ethics statement in its Methods or Declarations. This must identify the approving ethics committee and provide the approval reference and date, where applicable, and describe how informed consent was obtained or explain the applicable exemption or non-applicability. Where approval was not required, authors must provide the basis for that determination. The journal may request supporting documentation. During review, the committee’s institution may be written as “[institution withheld for review]” in the blinded manuscript; it is added in the final version. The full committee name, approval number and date are also given on the Title Page, which the editorial office sees and reviewers do not, so the editorial team can verify the approval and may request the approval letter.

Consent and privacy

Authors must obtain informed consent where required. For identifiable clinical images or case details, appropriate publication consent and privacy safeguards are required. Remove unnecessary identifying information and do not upload confidential patient information into unauthorised external systems.

Research involving animals

Research involving animals must comply with applicable legislation, institutional requirements, and recognised animal-welfare standards. Authors must provide approval details from the relevant institutional animal ethics committee or competent authority, as applicable, and describe measures taken to minimise animal suffering. Where relevant, authors should follow the ARRIVE reporting guidelines. The journal may request supporting documentation and will assess ethical concerns through an appropriate human-led editorial process.

Clinical trials and protocols

Clinical trials must be registered in an appropriate public trial registry before the first participant is enrolled, in accordance with ICMJE requirements and applicable journal policy. For trials conducted in India, authors should register with the Clinical Trials Registry–India (CTRI), where applicable. Trials conducted elsewhere should use an appropriate recognised public registry.

Authors must provide the registry name, registration number, and registration details in the manuscript and abstract, as applicable. Clinical trial reports must include a data-sharing statement addressing whether de-identified individual participant data will be shared and, where applicable, which data will be available, when, to whom, and through what access mechanism.

Protocols should describe the study design, outcomes, planned analyses, ethics arrangements, and intended reporting standards transparently.

Research integrity

• Fabrication: making up data or results.
• Falsification: manipulating materials, processes, images, or data so the research record is misleading.
• Plagiarism: using another’s words, ideas, or work without appropriate attribution.
• Duplicate or redundant publication, inappropriate text recycling, undisclosed overlapping datasets, and improper authorship.
• Selective reporting, image manipulation, undisclosed conflicts, or other practices that may undermine the reliability of the record.

Assessment of research integrity concerns

• The journal will assess suspected research-integrity concerns impartially, confidentially, and proportionately.
• Automated screening results and other alerts are indicators for assessment, not proof of misconduct.
• Authors will ordinarily be given an appropriate opportunity to respond before an adverse editorial conclusion is reached, where feasible and consistent with the circumstances.
• Where necessary, the journal may seek clarification, request supporting records, consult independent experts, or refer concerns to the relevant institution or competent body.
• Editorial actions will be based on the available evidence and the applicable journal policies.
• Decisions concerning corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions will be made by authorised humans.

Report a concern: ethics@mayeramj.com.

Corrections and retractions

When a published record is unreliable or materially incomplete, the journal may issue a correction, expression of concern, or retraction as appropriate. These actions are made by authorised humans and are not automated by AI. See the Corrections & Retractions policy.