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Ethics policy

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Research & publication ethics
  • Enacted on Jun 22, 2012
  • First revision Jul 1, 2017
  • Recently revised Jan 1, 2022

Table of Contents

All manuscripts should be based on strict observation of research and publication ethics guidelines recommended by the Council of Science Editors (http://www.councilscienceeditors.org), International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE, http://www.icmje.org), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME, http://www.wame.org), and the Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors (KAMJE, http://www.kamje.or.kr). All studies involving human subjects or human data must be reviewed and approved by a responsible institutional review board (IRB). Please refer to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects) for research involving human subjects. Animal experiments also should be reviewed by an appropriate institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC). Studies with pathogens requiring a high degree of biosafety should pass review of a institutional biosafetycommittee (IBC). The approval should be described in the Methods and Materials section. For studies of humans, including case reports, whether informed consent was obtained from the study participants must be stated. The editor of the KMJ may request copies of statements of informed consent from human subjects in clinical studies or IRB approval documents. The KMJ will apply the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE, http://publicationethics.org) to address any misconduct.
Research subjects must have been properly instructed and have indicated that they consent to participate by signing the appropriate informed consent paperwork. Authors may be asked to submit a blank, sample copy of a subject consent form. If consent was provided verbally instead of in written form, or if consent could not be obtained, the authors must explain why in the manuscript, and the use of verbal consent or the lack of consent must have been approved by the appropriate IRB or ethics committee. More information about patient privacy, anonymity, and informed consent can be found in the privacy and confidentiality guidelines of International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
The designated corresponding author for each article should inform the Editor of the authors’ potential conflicts of interest that may influence the research or interpretation of data. A potential conflict of interest should be disclosed in the cover letter even when the authors are confident that their judgment has not been influenced in preparing the manuscript. Such conflicts may include financial support or private connections to pharmaceutical companies, political pressure from interest groups, or academic disputes. Disclosure forms shall be identical to the ICMJE Uniform Disclosure Form for Potential Conflicts of Interest. The Editor will determine whether details of the possible conflict should be included in the published paper. All sources of funding for a study should be explicitly stated. The KMJ asks referees to apprise its Editor of any conflicts of interest before reviewing a particular manuscript.
The KMJ follows the recommendations for authorship established by the ICMJE, 2019 (http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf) and Good Publication Practice Guidelines for Medical Journals 3rd Edition (KAMJE, 2019, https://www.kamje.or.kr/board/view?b_name=bo_publication&bo_id=13&per_page=). Authorship criteria are intended to reserve the status of authorship for those who deserve credit and can take responsibility for the work. Authorship credit should be based on 1) substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; 2) drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; 3) final approval of the version to be published; and 4) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work by ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Authors should meet criteria 1, 2, 3, and 4. In addition, an author should be accountable for his or her contributions and should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for each part of the work. Authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors. All designated authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged as contributors rather than authors. These criteria are not intended for use to disqualify colleagues from authorship those who otherwise meet authorship criteria by denying them the opportunity to meet criterion 2 or 3. All individuals who meet the first criterion should have the opportunity to participate in review, drafting, and final approval of the manuscript.
A corresponding author should be designated when there are two or more authors. The corresponding author is responsible for communications with the Editor and audience. Any comment of the corresponding author is regarded as the opinion of all authors.
When a large, multicenter group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. When submitting a manuscript authored by a group, the corresponding author should clearly indicate the preferred citation and identify all individual authors as well as the group name. Journals generally list other members of the group in the Acknowledgments. Contributing to the acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship.
When co-authoring papers with researchers with a special relationship (minors under the age of 19 or family members, including a spouse and children), plans to involve them must be disclosed to affiliated institutions and co-researchers before the research begins. Affiliated institutions and relevant academic organizations should be informed before submission of such a paper. If an invalid authorship of the affiliate co-authors is confirmed, the Editorial Board of the KMJ will notify the the associated institutions (e.g., school and affiliation) from which the author(s) received any benefits.
Redundant publication is defined as “reporting (publishing or attempting to publish) substantially the same work more than once, without attribution of the original source(s).” Characteristics of reports that are substantially similar include the following: (a) “at least one of the authors must be common to all reports (if there are no common authors, it is more likely plagiarism than redundant publication),” (b) “the subjects or study populations are the same or overlapped,” (c) “the methodology is typically identical or nearly so,” and (d) “the results and their interpretation generally vary little, if at all.”
When submitting a manuscript, authors should include a letter informing the editor of any potential overlap with other already published material or material being evaluated for publication elsewhere and should also state how the manuscript submitted to KMJ differs substantially from other materials. If all or part of a patient population was previously reported, this should be mentioned in the Methods, with citation of the appropriate reference(s). The KMJ editorial committee screens all submitted manuscripts for plagiarism through Ithenticate (https://www.ithenticate.com) prior to publication.
Any clinical trial that “prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention and comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome” should be registered with the primary registry to qualify prior to publication. The KMJ accepts registration in any of the primary registries that are part of the WHO International Clinical Trials Portal (http://www.who.int/ictrp/en), NIH ClinicalTrials.gov (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov), ISRCTN Resister (www.ISRCTN.org), or Clinical Research Information Service (CRIS), Korea CDC (http://www.cdc.go.kr/CDC/eng/main.jsp). The clinical trial registration number should be included at the end of the abstract.
Ensure correct use of the terms “sex” (biological factors) and “gender” (identity, psychosocial, or cultural factors). Unless inappropriate, report the sex or gender of study participants, the sex of animals or cells, and the methods used to determine sex or gender. If the study involved an exclusive population (in only one sex, for example), the authors should justify why, except in obvious cases (e.g., prostate cancer). Authors should explain how race or ethnicity was determined, and justify their relevance.
When the Journal encounters a suspected case of research or publication misconduct, such as a redundant (duplicate) publication, plagiarism, fabricated data, changes in authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, ethical problems with the submitted manuscript, a reviewer who has appropriated an author’s idea or data, complaints against editors, and other issues, the resolution process will follow the flowchart provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics. The Editorial Board of the KMJ will discuss the suspected case and reach a decision. For policies on research and publication ethics not stated in the Instructions, Guidelines on Good Publication (http://publicationethics.org) or Good Publication Practice Guidelines for Medical Journals (http://kamje.or.kr) can be applied.
The Editorial Board of KMJ will continuously monitor and safeguard publication ethical protocols, including guidelines for retracting articles; maintenance of the integrity of the academic record; preclusion of business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards; publishing corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed; and the exclusion of plagiarism and fraudulent data. The editors maintain the following responsibilities: authority to reject and accept articles; avoid any conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject or accept; promote publication of corrections or retractions when errors are found; and preserve the anonymity of reviewers.
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