Research involving humans and animals

Bioscience Journal endorses and requires authors to strictly follow the ICMJE recommendations on the protection of research participants and that all studies involving human subjects comply with the Declaration of Helsinki as revised in 2013. Research must be conducted in strict observance of internationally recognized ethical principles.

For all manuscripts describing research involving human subjects or animals, obtaining approval from an appropriate ethics committee is mandatory.

 

  • Research involving human subjects: Must have been approved by a Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa (CEP) or an equivalent Institutional Review Board (IRB) at a local, regional, or national level. The manuscript must clearly indicate: the name of the institution, the name of the ethics committee, and the approval protocol number (in Brazil, include the CAAE number). If there are doubts as to whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, authors must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the reviewing body explicitly approved the questionable aspects of the study. Approval by the committee does not preclude the journal editors from making their own judgment regarding the ethical adequacy of the research. If the study involves clinical trials, registration in a recognized public database is mandatory (see our Clinical trial registration policy).
  • Research involving animals: Authors must indicate whether institutional and national standards for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed. Approval by a local or national Comitê de Ética no Uso de Animais (CEUA/IACUC) is mandatory. The approval protocol number must be provided in the manuscript. Adherence to the ARRIVE (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments) guidelines is strongly recommended, as per our policy on Reporting guidelines.
  • Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses: Although reviews of public secondary data are generally exempt from ethical approval, the journal requires that the systematic review protocol be registered in recognized databases, such as PROSPERO. The registration number must be provided in the manuscript.
  • Scoping reviews: Must be registered on Open Science platforms, such as OSF - Open Science Framework, and the registration number must be provided in the manuscript, in accordance with the journal's section policies.