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Policies on conflict of interest, Human and animal rights, and Informed consent

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Research & publication ethics

Enacted on Jun 22, 2012
First revision Jul 1, 2017
Recently revised Jan 1, 2022

Conflict of Interest

The corresponding author of an article is asked to inform the Editor of the authors' potential conflicts of interest possibly influencing the research or interpretation of data. A potential conflict of interest should be disclosed in the cover letter even when the authors are confident that their judgments have not been influenced in preparing the manuscript. Such conflicts may include financial support or private connections to pharmaceutical companies, political pressure from interest groups, or academic problems. Disclosure form shall be same with ICMJE Uniform Disclosure Form for Potential Conflicts of Interest (https://jkms.org/src/coi_disclosure.docx). The Editor will decide whether the information on the conflict should be included in the published paper. In particular, all sources of funding for a study should be explicitly stated. The KMJ asks referees to let its Editor know of any conflict of interest before reviewing a particular manuscript

Human and Animal rights

All studies involving human subjects or human data must be reviewed and approved by a responsible Institutional Review Board (IRB). Please refer to the principles embodied in the Declaration of Helsinki (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/) for all investigations involving human materials. Authors should be able to submit, upon request, a statement from the IRB or ethics committee indicating approval of the research. KMJ has the right to reject work that we believe has not been conducted to a high ethical standard, even when formal approval has been obtained. Subjects must have been properly instructed and have indicated that they consent to participate by signing the appropriate informed consent paperwork. Authors may be asked to submit a blank, sample copy of a subject consent form. If consent was verbal instead of written, or if consent could not be obtained, the authors must explain the reason in the manuscript, and the use of verbal consent or the lack of consent must have been approved by the IRB or ethics committee. All efforts should be made to protect patient privacy and anonymity. Identifying information, including photos, should not be included in the manuscript unless the information is crucial and the individual has provided written consent.

For studies of humans including case reports, state whether informed consents were obtained from the study participants. The editor of KMJ may request submission of copies of informed consents from human subjects in clinical studies or IRB approval documents. The KMJ will follow the guidelines by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE, http://publicationethics.org) for settlement of any misconduct. All animal experiments involving vertebrates or cephalopods must have approval from the authors' Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or equivalent ethics committee(s), and must have been conducted according to applicable national and international guidelines. Approval must be received prior to beginning research. Also studies with pathogens requiring a high degree of biosafety should pass review of a relevant committee (IBC). The approval should be described in the Methods section.

Informed Consent

Subjects must have been properly instructed and have indicated that they consent to participate by signing the appropriate informed consent paperwork. Authors may be asked to submit a blank, sample copy of a subject consent form. If consent was verbal instead of written, or if consent could not be obtained, the authors must explain the reason in the manuscript, and the use of verbal consent or the lack of consent must have been approved by the IRB or ethics committee. More information about patient privacy, anonymity, and informed consent can be found in the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Privacy and Confidentiality guidelines.