Reporting ethical processes in two Indian journals

Do Editorial Policies Support Ethical Research? A Thematic Text Analysis of Author Instructions in Psychiatry Journals

“…A few studies have assessed journals’ instructions to authors on the reporting of ethical issues, but none has done so in the field of psychiatry, and no study so far has investigated both the instructions given to authors on the journals’ websites and those given during the submission process [6], [19]–[21]. Furthermore, editorial policies on more specific reporting of ethical approval or informed consent have not yet been assessed systematically.…”

Reporting ethical processes in Indian journals

“…But till then, who is to be blamed for the current dismal reporting of ethical processes: editors, who publish these studies without verifying whether ethical approval and written informed consent/assent was taken or not; reviewers, who do not give appropriate importance to this important information while sending their recommendations; or the authors, who fail to obtain/report the desired ethical permissions? Everyone will have one or the other excuse [ Figure 1] I agree with the authors that the results Reporting on ethical processes in two Indian pediatric journals in this issue of Indian Journal of Medical Sciences, Bavdekar et al [1] have concluded that a signiÞ cant proportion of articles published in these two journals have not provided information regarding obtaining of ethical approval, written informed consent, and assent; and imagine, I am asked to write a commentary on this article (or defend myself), being the editorin-chief of one of the journals in question! Bavdekar et al [1] have raised a valid issue, and their findings are in conformity with studies from the rest of the globe indicating that the problem is not limited to Indian journals alone.…”

“…Everyone will have one or the other excuse [ Figure 1] I agree with the authors that the results Reporting on ethical processes in two Indian pediatric journals in this issue of Indian Journal of Medical Sciences, Bavdekar et al [1] have concluded that a signiÞ cant proportion of articles published in these two journals have not provided information regarding obtaining of ethical approval, written informed consent, and assent; and imagine, I am asked to write a commentary on this article (or defend myself), being the editorin-chief of one of the journals in question! Bavdekar et al [1] have raised a valid issue, and their findings are in conformity with studies from the rest of the globe indicating that the problem is not limited to Indian journals alone. On a positive note, I am rather happy that ethical clearance is reported for more than one third of the prospective studies, despite the fact that the can be extrapolated to other biomedical journals in India.…”

Reporting ethical processes in journals

“…[4] A companion article in this publication examines how two Indian pediatric journals perform this watchdog function. [5] Unsurprisingly, given similar Þ ndings in the growing literature in this Þ eld, the authors describe low levels of documentation of basic ethical safeguards, namely, REC approval and informed consent, during 2006. Importantly, as the authors caution, failure to document REC approval and informed consent in a journal article does not necessarily imply that the research was unethical, nor is it evidence that researchers failed in their ethical obligations or that participants were put at risk.…”