Natural Science Institute

Research Ethics Policy

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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.