Abstract
Background: The instructions to authors are the only means of communication between researchers and the editorial standards of a scientific journal. One of the mandatory items to be contained therein is about the ethical part, to prevent new research to carry out abuses with the enrolled on the research are published and stimulated. Aim: To verify the ethical questions on the guidelines of Brazilian surgical journals Method: Thirteen selected journals were divided into two groups: general surgery (n=3), and surgical specialty (n=10). The instructions to authors were analyzed by the quote of ethical requirements based on a specific research protocol, ranging from zero to six points. Results: The average score of the general surgery group was similar than that of the surgical specialty group (3.66±0.57 vs 3.30±1.15, p=0.6154). When each ethical requirement was compared between the groups, there was no significant difference between the ethical requirements (p<0.05). Conclusion: There was respect for most ethical questions evaluated, with no difference between the journals of general or specialty surgery.
Highlights
Ethical principles have strongly changed in biomedical researchers overtime
The selection of the national surgical journals was performed at the site of Scientific Electronic Library Online (Scielo), where were selected all journals on the Brazilian collection bases, according to area “Health Sciences”
There are six ethical requirements that should be described in the instructions to the authors as follows: 1) approval by the Research Ethics Committee; 2) reference to the fact that the research follows the precepts of the Declaration of Helsinki; 3) reference to the fact that the research is in compliance with the Resolution 466/12 of the National Health Council of the Brazilian Ministry of Health; 4) authorization from the subject agreeing to participate in the research through the informed consent; 5) information about the authors’ conflicts of interest; and 6) request for registration of clinical trials in the Brazilian Clinical Trials Registry
Summary
Ethical principles have strongly changed in biomedical researchers overtime. Historically, the desire to clarify unanswered questions in the past was overvalued against welfare of participants. There were proposed ten guidelines that should be respected in research designs. In 1964, the Helsinki[5] declaration suggested the ethical review board that every research should be submitted in advance for evaluation and approval. Review board approval declaration should be required for publishing a paper. Based on those international recommendations, Brazilian regulations about researches were compiled in the 196/96 resolution from the Ministry of Health3,. Papers[6,9,10,11,13,14] have shown that critical ethical aspects, such as IRB approval, have not been requested in the Instructions for Authors
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
