Research Ethics Policy

• Our policy is to ensure that all articles published by SALT JSRH report on work that is morally acceptable and expects authors to follow the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki. 
• To achieve this, we aim to appraise the ethical aspects of any submitted work that involves human participants, whatever descriptive label is given to that work including research, audit, and sometimes debate.

We require every research article submitted to include a statement that the study obtained ethics approval (or a statement that it was not required and why), including the name of the ethics committee(s) or institutional review board(s), the number/ID of the approval(s), and a statement that participants gave informed consent before taking part.

In addition we welcome detailed explanations of how investigators and authors have considered and justified the ethical and moral basis of their work. If such detail does not easily fit into the manuscript please provide it in the covering letter or upload it as a supplemental file when submitting the article. We will also be pleased to see copies of explanatory information given to participants. Even if we do not include such detailed information in a final published version, we may make it available to peer reviewers and editorial committees. We already ask peer reviewers to consider and comment on the ethics of submitted work.

Manuscripts will be considered for publication only if the work described:

• follows international, national and institutional guidelines for the humane treatment of animals and complies with relevant legislation;
• has been approved by the ethics review committee at the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted (where such a committee exists);
• for studies involving non-human primates, demonstrates that the standards meet those of the NC3Rs primates guidelines;
• for studies using client-owned animals, demonstrates a high standard (best practice) of veterinary care and involves informed client consent.

Before a manuscript can be accepted, authors must:

• confirm that legal and ethical requirements have been met with regards to the humane treatment of animals described in the study;
• specify in the Materials or Methods section the ethical review committee approval process and the international, national, and/or institutional guidelines followed.

Editors retain the right to reject manuscripts on the basis of ethical or animal welfare concerns. Papers may be rejected on ethical grounds if the study involves unnecessary pain, distress, suffering or lasting harm to animals, or if the severity of the experimental procedure does not appear to be justified by the value of the work presented. 

• Declaration of Helsinki
• US Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects 
• European Medicines Agency Guidelines for Good Clinical Practice