The information published below about Journal of Human Sport and Exercise’s (hereafter JHSE) Conflict of Interest, Human and Animal Rights, and Informed Consent policies complements the information published at Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement section which should also be consulted.

 

Conflict of Interest

A Declaration of Conflicting Interests policy refers to a formal policy a journal may have to require a conflict-of-interest statement or conflict of interest disclosure from a submitting or publishing author.

“Conflicts of interest arise when authors, reviewers, or editors have interests that are not fully apparent and that may influence their judgments on what is published. They have been described as those which, when revealed later, would make a reasonable reader feel misled or deceived”.

Duties of the Editor and the Editorial Board

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor’s own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Editors should excuse themselves (i.e. should ask a co-editor, associate editor or other member of the editorial board instead to review and consider) from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or (possibly) institutions connected to the papers. Editors should require all contributors to disclose relevant competing interests and publish corrections if competing interests are revealed after publication. If needed, other appropriate action should be taken, such as the publication of a retraction or expression of concern.

Duties of the Reviewers

Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Duties of Authors

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. If authors know that organizations or institutions that have provided support for the work or for authors' salaries have received any grants from other institutions or companies that have been involved or have an interest in the work described, such information should be declared. Institutions should also declare any relevant patents, both pending and actual. The role of all funding sources in the work should be described, including whether they were involved in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Examples of competing interests include, but are not limited to:

Financial

• Stock ownership.
• Paid employment.
• Board membership.
• Patent applications (pending or actual).
• Research grants (from whatever source).
• Travel grants and honoraria for speaking or participation at meetings.
• Gifts.

Personal

• Membership of lobbying organizations.
• Relationship with editors, or the Editorial Board of JHSE, or with possible reviewers of the paper.

Professional

• Acting as an expert witness.
• Membership of a government advisory board.
• Relationship with organizations and funding bodies.
• Writing for an educational company.

 

Human and Animal Rights

All research must have been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework. If there is suspicion that work has not taken place within an appropriate ethical framework, Editors will follow may reject the manuscript, and/or contact the author(s)’ ethics committee. On rare occasions, if the Editor has serious concerns about the ethics of a study, the manuscript may be rejected on ethical grounds, even if approval from an ethics committee has been obtained.

Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee.

The submitted study has to be supported by the ethics/bioethics committee approval.

Authors reporting the use of a new procedure or tool in a clinical setting, for example as a technical advance or case report, must give a clear justification in the manuscript for why the new procedure or tool was deemed more appropriate than usual clinical practice to meet the patient’s clinical need. Such justification is not required if the new procedure is already approved for clinical use at the authors’ institution. Authors will be expected to have obtained ethics committee approval and informed patient consent for any experimental use of a novel procedure or tool where a clear clinical advantage based on clinical need was not apparent before treatment.

 

Informed Consent

In JHSE, patients have a right to privacy that should not be violated without informed consent. Identifying information, including names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that an identifiable patient be shown the manuscript to be published. Authors should disclose to these patients whether any potential identifiable material might be available via the Internet as well as in print after publication. Patient consent should be written and archived either with the journal, the authors, or both, as dictated by local regulations or laws. Nonessential identifying details should be omitted. Informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt that anonymity can be maintained. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance, and editors should so note, that such alterations do not distort scientific meaning. When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the published article.