Ethical Declarations

Dear Author,Thank you for your question!These are some of the ethical considerations for secondary research:• Whether consent was obtained when the data was collected for its original purpose and whether your study is aligned with the consent provided for the original data collection• Data management and presentation to ensure confidentiality and security• Whether your use and storage of the data meets the requirements of the original data providers• Acknowledgment, referencing, and copyrights of the data source• The risk of losing confidentiality by pooling data from multiple sources• The risk of prejudiced or skewed information resulting from data pooling• Whether your findings reveal new and important insights (such as a health threat) that need to be conveyed to the original data sources  

Welcome to the Editage Insights Q&A Forum, and thanks for your question.  A very similar question has already been answered here: What is the importance of research ethics?  This answer should help resolve your query.  In addition, we have some excellent resources on this topic to guide you:  VIDEO: What every researcher should know to conduct research ethically  INFOGRAPHIC: Top 5 ethical considerations when you conduct research    Hope that helps. All the best for your study! 

Welcome to the Editage Insights Q&A Forum, and thanks for your question.  A very similar question has already been answered here: What is the importance of research ethics?  This answer should help resolve your query.  In addition, we have some excellent resources on this topic to guide you:  VIDEO: What every researcher should know to conduct research ethically  INFOGRAPHIC: Top 5 ethical considerations when you conduct research    Hope that helps. All the best for your study! 

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) is an industry body guiding best (ethical) practices in various areas of research publishing, such as authorship, submission, and conflict of interest. The ICMJE statement you are referring to is the Conflicts of Interest form. In the form, you need to mention information about certain aspects of your research and paper, such as names of authors, funding information, and relationships or affiliations. You need to download the form from the ICMJE site, complete it as instructed, and submit to Elsevier. (Note: Do not submit to ICMJE.)The form is available via the ICMJE home page. You may access and download it here. It should be fairly easy to complete the form, as it provides detailed information and instructions. If needed, you may check with someone else, or if so desired, use the help of our submission service (which may also help you with the other aspects of your submission).Hope that helps. And all the best for your submission!

We can possibly see why you are concerned about this, as you are working in psychiatry and this research seems to touch upon the topic of quality of life (QOL) of individuals. However, you are right. No ethics approval is needed for such a study, as no new data is being collected. So, you are good to proceed; but it’s great that you are doing due diligence. :-)Incidentally, your research sounds interesting, and we would love to know how it turns out. However, it’s not entirely clear if you are working on a simple literature review, a systematic review, a meta-analysis, or something that is between primary research and secondary research. Our curiosity is because you mentioned that the design is some sort of simulation. In case you are working on a meta-analysis, note that you will need to register your review protocol.Also, it’s not clear if you meant ‘cost-effective evaluation’ or ‘cost-effectiveness evaluation.’ The former means that the evaluation is cost-effective, that is, it is worthy for the cost. The latter means that you are doing an evaluation of the cost and the effectiveness of a proposed solution.Anyway, for more information on developing secondary research articles, you may refer to...

It’s great that your article has been accepted and has reached the proofing stage. So, it’s very close to publication.However, it’s unfortunate that you have only now realized you forgot to mention the conflict of interest. As you can understand, the journal is likely to view this quite seriously. They may believe (at least initially) that this was a deliberate attempt on your part. However, from what you have written, this seems to be a genuine lapse.So, here’s what we suggest.You should write to the journal immediately, informing them of this and requesting for advice on the course of action. It would help to apologize for the oversight, in the manner you feel best. Overall though, you should convey that this was a genuine oversight rather than something deliberate.Here are the journal-side possibilities we see.They may put the publication on hold until the matter is resolved. As this is an ethical matter, and based on the nature of the conflict, this may take some time to resolve.They may decide not to proceed with the publication, based on their policy in this matter. This may not necessarily be to penalize your lapse, but more a matter of their policy. In this...

Your question does not provide details about the study or the type of data being collected. Without knowing these details, it would be difficult to comment on the need for IRB approval. However, you have mentioned that the data collection is part of the “routine clinical procedure.” This seems to suggest that the data may not be sensitive (and therefore may have less or no risk for compromising the identity or safety of the individuals) or not be relevant to the disease, disorder, or problem you are investigating. However, you should still submit your study for approval to the IRB, more so because it will be near impossible to obtain patients' consent for using retrospective data. You should submit it to the IRB for approval and let them take a call on whether it is necessary. In the matter of research and publication ethics, it is always good to be on the safer side. Additionally, certain journals might have mandates on submitting the IRB approval, so it's better to get it done.Related reading:The need for ethics approval: A case studyPublication ethics problems don't spare any disciplineFinally, the IRB approves!

Most important thing is to ask for their consent/permission first. If they accept then go ahead and but be non judgemental and sensitive but professional

Generally, the ethical declarations and conflict of interest statement is a single document which should be signed by all authors. Therefore you must try getting all the authors' signatures on one document. But sometimes researchers are based in different geographical locations and it may not be possible for all of them to physically sign the same document. Even if they choose to transfer the document to different locations and send it back, it may take a lot of time. Thus, most journals allow authors to submit separate copies of the declaration. However, a cover letter explaining the situation must be submitted to the journal along with the individual declarations. You can also look up the journal website or write an email to the journal to further clarify your doubts.Related reading:Is it okay to submit the signature of co-authors in separate documents rather than on a single document?Disclosure of conflicts of interest: what do journals expect from authors?Conflicts of interest