Research Ethics and Patient Consent
Research endeavors involving human experiments must be performed in strict adherence to the principles delineated in the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki;
For papers submitted to Medical Journals, it is imperative to observe the ICMJE Recommendations, encompassing Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work. The respective approval granted (or waived) by the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board should be stated in the manuscript if animal and/or human studies are involved.
For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether such consent was acquired in written or verbal form.
For individual cases or case series, the informed consent should be incorporated in the manuscript text.
Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants.
In the context of research that involves Cell Lines, authors should explicitly disclose the source of any cell lines within the Method section. For established cell lines, the provenance should be stated, accompanied by appropriate references to a published paper or a commercial source. If previously unpublished de novo cell lines were employed, including those received from another laboratory, details of institutional review board or ethics committee approval must be furnished. Moreover, for cell lines of human origin, authors must present written informed consent as a confirmation. Editors reserve the right to reject any submission that fails to meet these requirements.
For clinical trials, it is essential to initiate the registration process at the outset, and subsequently, authors must furnish a registration number issued by a WHO-approved public trials registry within the manuscript. The trial name and URL should also be provided if necessary.
Depending on the nature of the study, it is imperative to adhere to the pertinent EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines. For example, all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication are mandated to incorporate a comprehensive Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) flow chart as a formally cited figure, in addition to a completed CONSORT checklist, which should be provided as a supplementary file.
Other resources can be accessed in NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives.
GSP encourages the adoption of two different article types: Registered Reports and Validation/Replication Studies. For more information, including guidelines on how to submit a registered report, the requisite formatting, and the specific criteria that Editors and peer reviewers evaluate, we recommend referring to Sage’s guidance on registered report guidelines.
GSP is committed to maintaining high standards through a rigorous peer-review process and strict ethical policies. Any infringements of professional ethical codes such as plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, or bogus claims of authorship should be taken very seriously by the editors, with zero tolerance.
Corrections and Retractions
GSP follows the Code of Conduct of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), as well as the COPE Flowcharts for Resolving Cases of Suspected Misconduct.
We require all of our authors and partnering institutions to follow the same. Any ethical concerns should be directed to the specific GSP journal’s editorial office regarding:
- Scientific misconduct
- Undisclosed conflicts of interest
- Errors in published articles
- Technical concerns in published articles
Corrections: Authors or readers should contact the specific GSP journal’s editorial office immediately if errors are identified in published articles. Following the publication of an article, modifications to the author list, including alterations to the order, as well as the removal or addition of authors, may be implemented, contingent upon the unanimous consent of all authors involved. At times, authors may necessitate changes in their name for a variety of valid reasons.
GSP will issue a correction notice while correcting the errors in the published article when notified by the authors. The author who initiates the request assumes the responsibility of composing the correction notice. Please submit a correction notice that clearly identifies the error, what the correct information is, and which version of the original article has been corrected. GSP strongly advises that the correction notice should encompass comprehensive details, including all pertinent information about the journal and the article, the content requiring correction, and the revised version to be substituted.
Retractions: An article is subject to retraction when errors or misconduct, either identified by the authors themselves or uncovered during investigations, are of a nature that would substantially alter the study’s conclusions. Any breaches of publication or research ethics may similarly lead to the retraction of a study. The original article is marked as “Retracted”, but a PDF version remains available to readers which will be watermarked as “Retracted Article". The retraction statement is bi-directionally linked to the original published paper. All retraction statements provide a comprehensive explanation of the reasons for the article’s retraction.