Policies on Conflict of Interest, Human and Animal rights, and Informed Consent

The International Journal of Nutrology (IJN) requires transparent disclosure of competing interests and strict compliance with internationally accepted standards for research involving human participants, identifiable patient information, and animals. These requirements apply to authors, reviewers, editors, editorial board members, and all published content, whenever applicable.

Conflicts of Interest and Competing Interests

A conflict of interest, also called a competing interest, exists when a financial, personal, professional, academic, institutional, intellectual, political, or other relationship or activity could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, a person's judgment concerning a manuscript. A disclosed relationship does not necessarily prevent publication or participation in the editorial process; however, transparency is mandatory.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Financial interests: employment, consultancies, honoraria, grants, paid expert testimony, stock ownership, options, patents, royalties, or other financial relationships connected to the subject of the work.
• Personal or professional relationships: family relationships, close personal relationships, personal disputes, supervision, mentorship, recent collaboration, or professional rivalry.
• Academic and intellectual interests: strong academic competition, intellectual commitments, ownership of relevant ideas or methods, or involvement in directly competing research.
• Institutional interests: employment, leadership, advisory roles, or membership in an organization that may benefit from the publication or rejection of the work.
• Ideological or political interests: beliefs, advocacy roles, or associations that may influence, or appear to influence, professional judgment.

Authors

All authors must disclose every relationship or activity that could influence, or be perceived to influence, the submitted work. Disclosure is required even when the authors believe that the relationship did not affect the research.

• Each author must complete the current ICMJE Disclosure Form.
• The manuscript must contain a separate Conflicts of Interest statement. When no competing interests exist, the authors must state: “The authors declare no conflicts of interest.”
• Funding and material or technical support must be reported separately in the Funding statement, including the funder's role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, and the decision to submit.
• Authors must not enter into agreements that prevent independent access to data, analysis, interpretation, or publication of the results.

Failure to disclose a relevant relationship may result in suspension of the editorial process, rejection, publication of a correction or expression of concern, reassessment of peer review, or retraction when warranted.

Reviewers

Reviewers must disclose any relationship or activity that could affect their impartiality and must decline the invitation when a potential conflict exists. Relevant conflicts include recent coauthorship, current or recent institutional affiliation, supervision or mentorship, active collaboration, direct academic competition, personal relationships, financial interests, or access to the same unpublished research.

Reviewers must not use information obtained through peer review for personal, academic, professional, or financial advantage. When in doubt, the reviewer must inform the editor before accepting the review.

Editors and Editorial Board Members

Editors and editorial board members must disclose relevant interests and recuse themselves from handling or deciding manuscripts when impartiality could reasonably be questioned. A different qualified editor, without a conflict, must manage the manuscript and make the decision.

Manuscripts authored by an editor, editorial board member, journal employee, publisher representative, or a close collaborator must follow the same peer-review requirements as other submissions and must be handled independently. The author's position in the journal must not influence reviewer selection or the editorial decision.

Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving human participants, human biological material, identifiable information, or health data must comply with the current World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki (2024), applicable laws and regulations, and the ICMJE Recommendations on the Protection of Research Participants.

Before the research begins, the study must receive approval from an independent institutional, local, regional, or national research ethics committee or institutional review board, whenever required. The Methods section and the final published article must state:

• the full name of the approving ethics committee or institutional review board;
• the approval or protocol number and approval date, when available;
• whether written or documented informed consent was obtained;
• whether consent was waived, including the name of the body granting the waiver and the reason;
• the trial or study registration number and registry, when registration is applicable; and
• any additional authorization required by law, the institution, or the responsible ethics body.

When ethics approval is not legally or institutionally required, the manuscript must explain why it was not required and identify the applicable rule or determination. A statement by the authors alone is not sufficient when an ethics committee or institutional determination should have been obtained.

The editorial team may request approval letters, consent forms, study protocols, registration records, or confirmation from the responsible institution at any stage of evaluation or after publication. Approval by an ethics committee does not prevent the editors from independently assessing whether the research was conducted and reported ethically.

Children, Adolescents, and Other Vulnerable Participants

Research involving children, adolescents, adults who lack decision-making capacity, institutionalized persons, economically or educationally disadvantaged persons, prisoners, refugees, or other individuals in situations of vulnerability must provide additional protections against coercion, undue influence, discrimination, exploitation, and avoidable risk.

The manuscript must clearly report:

• the scientific justification for including the vulnerable population;
• the additional safeguards adopted to protect participants;
• how capacity to provide informed consent was assessed, when relevant;
• permission from a parent or legally authorized representative when required;
• the child's or adolescent's assent whenever applicable to age, maturity, local law, and the ethics committee's decision;
• measures taken to minimize risk, coercion, undue influence, and power imbalances; and
• the formal ethics committee authorization for any waiver of consent, guardian permission, or participant assent.

Research involving vulnerable participants without sufficient ethical justification, approval, and documentation will not proceed to peer review.

Informed Consent

Informed consent must be voluntary, understandable, and obtained before participation, except when a waiver has been formally approved by the responsible ethics committee. Participants must receive appropriate information about the study's purpose, procedures, foreseeable risks and benefits, privacy protections, voluntary nature, right to withdraw, and relevant alternatives.

The manuscript must state whether consent was written, oral, electronic, or otherwise documented and whether it was obtained from the participant or a legally authorized representative. When oral consent is permitted, the authors must explain how it was documented and approved.

Privacy and Consent for Publication

Participant privacy and confidentiality must be protected. Names, initials, hospital numbers, faces, voices, pedigrees, dates, locations, or other identifying information must not be published unless the information is scientifically essential and written consent for publication has been obtained from the participant or, when applicable, the parent or legally authorized representative.

Consent to participate in research is not automatically consent to publish identifiable information. When an individual may be identifiable in text, photographs, video, audio, imaging, genomic information, or other data, separate consent for publication is required. The individual or representative should be informed that the material may be available online and accessible internationally.

Removing direct identifiers or masking only the eye region does not guarantee anonymity. Nonessential identifying information must be omitted, and consent for publication must be obtained whenever there is doubt that anonymity can be maintained. Authors must retain the consent documentation and provide written confirmation or supporting documentation to the journal upon request.

Case Reports and Case Series

Case reports and case series must include a statement confirming informed consent for publication from the patient or, when applicable, the parent or legally authorized representative. Ethics committee approval or a formal determination of exemption must also be reported whenever required by applicable law or institutional policy.

Retrospective Studies, Secondary Data, and Biobanks

Retrospective studies, medical-record reviews, secondary analyses, and research using stored biological material, health databases, or biobanks must receive ethics approval or a formal waiver whenever required. The manuscript must describe the legal and ethical basis for data or sample access, the consent or waiver, and the measures used to protect confidentiality.

Research Involving Animals

Experimental and observational research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international standards for animal care and welfare and must receive prior approval from the appropriate institutional animal ethics committee or equivalent authority.

The manuscript must state:

• the full name of the approving committee or authority;
• the approval or protocol number and approval date;
• the species, strain, sex, age, source, housing, and relevant husbandry conditions;
• the procedures used to minimize pain, suffering, distress, and lasting harm;
• anesthesia, analgesia, humane endpoints, and euthanasia methods, when applicable; and
• the justification for the animal model and measures consistent with replacement, reduction, and refinement.

In vivo animal research must be reported in accordance with the ARRIVE Guidelines 2.0. Authors must upload the applicable completed ARRIVE 2.0 checklist as supplemental material. Compliance with the ARRIVE Essential 10 will be checked before peer review.

Field studies and research involving wildlife must also report the appropriate permits, licenses, conservation requirements, and measures taken to protect animals, species, habitats, and ecosystems.

Editorial Assessment and Enforcement

Ethical information will be checked before peer review and again before publication. Manuscripts may be returned to the authors when required statements, approvals, consent information, safeguards, registrations, or reporting checklists are missing.

The journal may reject a manuscript on ethical grounds even when formal approval has been reported if the editors have serious concerns about participant protection, animal welfare, research integrity, or compliance with accepted standards. When appropriate, the journal may contact the responsible ethics committee or institution and may follow relevant COPE Core Practices. Following COPE guidance does not constitute a claim that the journal is a COPE member.

If an ethical or competing-interest issue is identified after publication, the journal may publish a correction, expression of concern, or retraction, according to the seriousness of the issue and the evidence available.

Mandatory Statements in Published Articles

Every article must include the following statements when applicable. When an item is not applicable, authors must state “Not applicable” and, when necessary, briefly explain why:

• Ethics Approval
• Informed Consent to Participate
• Consent for Publication
• Trial or Study Registration
• Funding
• Conflicts of Interest
• Author Contributions
• Data Availability

Standards and References

• World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki (2024)
• ICMJE — Protection of Research Participants
• ICMJE — Disclosure of Relationships, Activities, and Conflicts of Interest
• ICMJE Disclosure Form
• ARRIVE Guidelines 2.0
• ARRIVE 2.0 Author Checklists
• COPE Core Practices