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Publication Ethics

Authorship

The Lahey Journal follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations on authorship. You can view the full text of the recommendations here: http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/.

Accordingly, all authors should have sufficiently participated in the work to take responsibility for the content, either all of it or a significant part of it. Substantial contributions must have been made in each of the four areas below:

  • Conception and design of the work or interpretation of the data for the work
  • Drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content
  • Approval of the version submitted for publication
  • Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Anyone not meeting the four criteria above should be acknowledged in the manuscript rather than be designated an author.

Conflict of Interest and Financial Disclosure

The Lahey Journal recognizes that readers benefit from transparency and that all authors have a responsibility to disclose interests that may appear to affect their ability to present or review data objectively.

Authors are therefore required to provide a list of all relationships, conditions, or circumstances that present a potential conflict of interest, or if none exists, to provide a statement to that effect. This should appear on the title page of the manuscript. Additionally, any funding sources related to any research conducted should also be disclosed on the title page.

Scientific Misconduct

Authors should adhere to the highest standards of honesty and integrity.

The U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy defines misconduct as “fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results.” According to the statement, the three elements of misconduct are defined as follows:

  • Fabrication is “making up data or results.”
  • Falsification is “manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented in the research record.” This includes the deceptive manipulation of images.
  • Plagiarism is “the appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit.” This includes the duplicate publication of one’s own work.

Additionally, the federal statement notes that to be considered research misconduct, actions must represent a “significant departure from accepted practices,” must have been “committed intentionally, or knowingly, or recklessly,” and must be “proven by a preponderance of evidence.”

Scientific misconduct does not include honest error or honest differences in the interpretation of data.

Reviewers should consider issues of scientific misconduct while preparing their reviews and bring any issues of concern to the journal editors.

Human and Animal Rights, and Informed Consent

The Lahey Journal follows the ICMJE recommendations on the protection of research participants. You can view their full recommendation here: http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/protection-of-research-participants.html.

In short,

  • Investigators should ensure that the planning, conduct and reporting of human research is done in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, available here: https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/. And a statement to that effect should appear in the manuscript.
  • Patients have a right to privacy that should not be violated without informed consent. Any identifiable material should be disclosed to patients prior to publication and their consent should be both written and archived. If informed consent was required it should be indicated in the manuscript.
  • When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether institutional and national standards for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed. The materials and methods section of the manuscript must indicate that appropriate measures were taken to minimize pain or discomfort and details of animal care should be provided.