Research Ethics Policy

Research Ethics Policy

• The objective of this research ethics policy is to discourage submissions containing unethical experimentation on human or animal subjects, or unethical research results.
• Research Ethics Committee are comprised of 5 members. The Director of INS and the Editor of QBS will be ex-officio members. Others will be appointed from the Associate Editors by the Director of INS.
• Research Ethics Committee reviews "research ethics", “ethical procedure of clinical experiments on human subjects”, and "ethical procedures of animal experiments" for QBS.
• [Research Ethics] The corresponding author of the submitted manuscript should verify that none of the following are violated:
  • Entire or partial duplication of the existing publication
  • Plagiarism
  • Non-scientific fabrication
• [Ethical Procedure of Clinical Experiments on Human Subjects] When reporting clinical experiments on human subjects, informed consent must be obtained and all research on human subjects must have institutional review body (IRB) approval.
• [Ethical Procedure of Animal Experiment] The manuscript relating to animal experiment must observe the following:
  • The ethical guidelines that the animal experiment followed should be referred to clearly in the manuscript.
  • Upon the Research Ethics Committee request, the corresponding author must submit detailed and accurate information about the ethical guideline that the animal experiment(s) followed.
• The Research Ethics Committee reserves the right to act against any author(s) who violate one of the above Section 4 ("research ethics"), Section 5 ("ethical procedure of clinical experiments on human subjects") and Section 6 ("ethical procedure of animal experiments").
  • The corresponding or first author whose manuscript violates Section 4 once will be banned from submission of manuscripts to QBS for 3 years from the ban decision date.
  • The corresponding or first author whose manuscript violates Section 4 twice will be put under a lifetime ban from submission of manuscripts to QBS.
  • The submitted manuscript is returned immediately to the corresponding author when the corresponding author does not comply with Section 5 or 6. The corresponding or first author who provides significantly inaccurate information regarding Section 5 or 6 will be banned from submission of manuscripts to QBS for 3 years from the ban decision date.