GMPC Policy on Ethical Approval for Research Involving Human Subjects

All studies, investigations, or research using human subjects must follow the rules of the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975. Principally, research involving human subjects should be directed to benefit society, particularly public health. However, scientific publications involving human subjects must include adherence to ethical standards in clinical research. GMPC journals believe in the statement that the publication of clinical research is a monitor of the implemented research ethics and an audit of the local and regional ethics committees that approved it. Therefore, GMPC Journals follow the COPE guidelines regarding "good publication practice ". GMPC journals recommend authors check and review COPE guidelines to ensure their studies adhere to them.

Research involving humans. Manuscripts about human subjects (human or patient data and/or human samples such as materials, tissue, blood, etc.) in the GMPC journals require the following:
i) Formal ethical approval from an appropriately constituted research ethics committee is required. The approval should contain all relevant information about the type of materials or metadata used in the study, project name, ID number of samples, date of approval, and the ethics committee's name. Authors should obtain this approval before the beginning of the study, confirming that the study follows all national and international guidelines.
ii) If ethical approval is not required to carry out the study, authors must provide an exemption from the ethics committee explaining why ethical approval was not required and highlighting that the research is ethically acceptable.
iii) When authors cannot give full informed consent, research should follow international guidelines, such as those of the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS)

Last updated: 15-Feb-2023