Ethical Standards

For prospective studies involving human investigations or animal experiments, authors are expected to have obtained the approval of regional, national, institutional or independent Ethics Committee, in addition to obtaining the subjects' consent to participate in the study. All studies involving human experiments should be performed only in accordance with the ethical standards provided by the responsible committee of the institution and in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki for Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subject. Studies related to animal experiments should follow the institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals. A relevant statement on ethics committee permission and ethical practices must be included in all research articles under Subjects and Methods section. The journal will not consider any paper which is ethically unacceptable. The journal asks for a copy of ethics approval and/or a copy of the consent form, if relevant. Clinical trials should be registered in a public trials registry in order to be considered for publication. Authors are recommended to register in one of the clinical trials registries certified by ICMJE.