Conflict of interest, human and animal rights, and informed consent

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST/ COMPETING INTERESTS

Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose all potential conflicts of interest.

  • Authors: Must declare funding sources, sponsorships, and personal/professional relationships that could bias the work.

  • Reviewers: Must decline assignments where conflicts exist.

  • Editors: Recuse themselves from decisions where conflicts are present.

Conflicts may include financial interests, personal relationships, institutional affiliations, or competing research.

Authorship & Contributions Policy

JAHM follows the ICMJE criteria (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations ) for authorship:

  1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work.

  2. Drafting or critically revising the manuscript.

  3. Final approval of the version to be published.

  4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

  • Contributors not meeting authorship criteria should be acknowledged.

  • Ghostwriting and guest authorship are strictly prohibited.

  • Author contribution statements (CRediT taxonomy) must be included.

HUMAN AND ANIMAL RIGHTS

1. Human Rights

  • Ethics Approval: All research involving human participants must receive prior approval from an appropriate Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board (IRB).

  • Informed Consent: Participants must provide voluntary, informed consent after receiving adequate information regarding the purpose, procedures, potential risks and benefits of the research.

  • Protection of Privacy: Researchers must maintain participant confidentiality and protect privacy and identifiable personal information.

  • Clinical Trial Registration: Clinical trials must be prospectively registered in a recognized public clinical trial registry, such as the CTRI (Clinical Trials Registry–India) https://ctri.nic.in or ClinicalTrials.gov, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ as applicable.

  • Vulnerable Populations: Research involving vulnerable individuals or groups must incorporate appropriate additional ethical safeguards. Detailed requirements, including provisions for children/minors, guardian consent, assent, impaired decision-making capacity and other vulnerable populations, are provided in the JAHM Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement https://jahm.co.in/index.php/jahm/Publicationethics.

2. Animal Rights

  • Ethics Approval: Research involving animals must receive prior approval from an Institutional Animal Ethics Committee (IAEC), Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), or other appropriate competent ethics body, as applicable.

  • Compliance with Guidelines: Animal research conducted in India must comply with applicable Committee for Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CCSEA) https://ccsea.gov.in  requirements. Research conducted outside India must comply with applicable national or institutional animal-research ethics requirements.

  • Humane Treatment: Animals must be treated humanely, with appropriate measures to minimize pain, distress and unnecessary use of animals.

  • 3Rs: Animal research should follow the principles of Replacement, Reduction and Refinement (3Rs).

3. Journal Oversight

  • Ethics Statements: Manuscripts involving human participants or animals must clearly report the applicable ethics approval, including the approving committee and approval/reference number where available.

  • Editorial Review: The Editorial Board may request ethics approval documents, informed-consent documentation or other supporting ethical documentation. JAHM reserves the right to reject manuscripts that do not demonstrate adequate ethical compliance.

INFORMED CONSENT

  • Consent Requirement: Informed consent must be appropriately obtained and documented in accordance with the approved study protocol and applicable ethical requirements. Where written informed consent is required, it must be obtained before participation. Additional safeguards must be applied for vulnerable populations.

  • Disclosure: Researchers must clearly explain the study's purpose, procedures, potential risks and benefits, and measures for protecting privacy and confidentiality.

  • Documentation: The informed-consent process and method of documentation must comply with the requirements approved by the relevant Ethics Committee/Institutional Review Board (IRB).

  • Publication Consent: Explicit consent for publication must be obtained when manuscripts contain identifiable personal information, images, photographs, clinical details, or other material from which an individual could reasonably be identified.

  • Journal Oversight: Editors shall ensure that manuscripts adequately report applicable ethical approval and informed-consent procedures and may request supporting documentation when necessary.