EDITORIAL

Policies for biomedical journals address ethics,confidentiality, and correctionsDavid L. Turpin, Editor-in-Chief

Seattle, Wash

With the realization that biomedical journalsare indirectly guided by a well-organizedcommittee of editors who comply with a

rigid set of requirements (see last month’s editorial), Iwill continue with confirmation of our support for theInternational Committee of Medical Journal Editorsand its recent update of the Uniform Requirements forManuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (http://www.icmje.org).

This month, I will discuss the importance ofprivacy and confidentiality for research participantsas well as authors and reviewers, protection ofhuman subjects and animals in research, and theoccasional need for corrections and retractions. Dupli-cate submissions and competing manuscripts based onthe same database will be explored. And finally, rulesaffecting letters to the editor and supplemental issueswill also be defined.

Privacy and confidentiality

Patients have a right to privacy that should not beinfringed upon without informed consent. Identifyingdetails should be omitted if they are not essential.Having said that, complete anonymity is difficult toachieve in the routine handling of orthodontic records,and informed consent should be obtained if there is anydoubt. For example, when publishing photographs ofpatients in the AJO-DO, we discourage masking the eyeregion and ask instead that the author submit a release,signed by the patient, allowing the photographs to bepublished. This requirement is included in Instructionsfor Authors.

When it comes to authors and reviewers, our reviewprocess respects the confidentiality of all involved. Insubmitting the results of their research for review,authors entrust editors with scientific work on whichtheir reputation and career can depend. Authors’ rightsmight be violated by disclosure of the confidentialdetails of the review of their manuscript. Reviewersalso have rights to confidentiality that must be re-

Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2006;130:693-50889-5406/$32.00Copyright © 2006 by the American Association of Orthodontists.

doi:10.1016/j.ajodo.2006.10.004

spected by the editor. We use a blinded review processto preserve confidentiality. Even with precautions inplace, however, a reviewer occasionally determines theidentify of an author, but under no circumstance is theauthor ever given the reviewer’s name. AJO-DO re-viewers are automatically notified of the editor’s deci-sion, and they are allowed to see the comments fromother reviewers of the same manuscript. Occasionally,we ask a reviewer for permission to edit the review andpublish it as a commentary when the article is pub-lished.

Protection of human subjects and animalsin research

When reporting experiments on human subjects,authors should indicate whether their procedures werein accordance with the ethical standards of the respon-sible committee on human experimentation and theHelsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Whenreporting experiments on animals, authors are asked toindicate whether the institutional and national guide-lines for the care and use of laboratory animals werefollowed.

Corrections and retractions

All editors strive for 100% accuracy, and theAJO-DO is no exception. Unfortunately, even the bestjournal must occasionally publish a correction or aretraction. These corrections appear on a numberedpage in a subsequent issue, are listed in the table ofcontents, and include the complete original citation.The online version of the journal can link the originalarticle to the correction. This type of error should not beconfused with inadequacies exposed by new scientificinformation in normal research. This requires no cor-rection or withdrawal.

Scientific fraud is a different type of difficulty. Ifsubstantial doubts arise about the honesty or integrity ofthe work, either submitted for review or already pub-lished, it is the editor’s responsibility to ensure thatthe authors’ sponsoring institution appropriately pur-sues the question. It is not the task of the editor’s

office to conduct a full investigation or to make a

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determination; that responsibility lies with the institu-tion where the work was done. If our journal office isinformed by the institution that a fraudulent article waspublished, the journal will print a retraction. The text ofthe retraction, written by the author, should explainwhy the article is being retracted and include its fulloriginal citation.

Regarding copyright issues, journal policies vary.The AJO-DO currently requires authors to transfercopyright to the journal before an article is pub-lished. Others who wish to use or reproduce pub-lished copyrighted material should seek permissionfrom the publisher. For the AJO-DO, permission canbe obtained by contacting the permissions depart-ment at Elsevier (healthpermissions@elsevier.com).The editor also has the right to waive copyright inselected circumstances.

Overlapping or duplicate publications

The AJO-DO will not consider manuscripts thatare simultaneously submitted to other journals. Dis-agreements can arise when 2 or more journalsunknowingly undertake peer review and agree topublish the same article. Redundant (or duplicate)publication is the publication of an article thatoverlaps substantially with something already pub-lished in print or electronic media. This is morecommon than in the past because of increasedpressures on researchers to publish many papers insupport of grant funding and academic tenure.

AJO-DO readers deserve to be able to trust thatwhat they read is original. The bases of this position areinternational copyright laws, ethical conduct, and cost-effective use of resources. Duplicate publication oforiginal research is particularly problematic, since itcan result in inadvertent double counting or inappro-priate weighting of the results of 1 study; this distortsthe available evidence. The AJO-DO does not wish toreceive submissions based on work that was alreadylargely reported in a published article or contained inanother article submitted or accepted elsewhere forpublication. When submitting an article, the authorshould make a full statement to the editor about allsubmissions and previous reports that might be re-garded as redundant or duplicative of the same orsimilar work, and must alert the editor if any part of thereport has been published previously.

If redundant or duplicate publication is attempted oroccurs, without such notification, authors should expecteditorial action. At the least, prompt rejection of thesubmitted manuscript can be expected. If already pub-lished, a notice of redundant or duplicate publication

will be published with or without the author’s explana-

tion or approval. There are a few exceptions. Secondarypublication in another language is justifiable and can bebeneficial, if several conditions are met. The approvalof the editors of both journals is required. The priorityof the primary publication is respected by a publicationinterval of at least 1 week. And, most important, thesecondary publication is intended for a different groupof readers.

Correspondence

The AJO-DO does its best to give its readership amechanism for submitting comments, questions, andcriticisms about published articles. The authors ofarticles in question by a letter to the editor will beallowed to respond, preferably in the same issue. Letterwriters must attempt to reference their statements, justas the authors of the articles in question are expected todo. They must also declare any conflicting interests.Letters from authors who have a significant financialconflict of interest might not be published.

The letters column of the AJO-DO should not beused merely to promote the journal’s point of view. Inall instances, the editor will try to support the writer’seffort to make a point, while screening out statementsthat are inaccurate, libelous, or too discourteous, andwill not allow ad hominem arguments intended todiscredit the opinions or findings of others. In theinterest of fairness and to keep correspondence withinmanageable proportions, the AJO-DO has the authorityto set time limits for responding to articles and corre-spondence, and for debate on a given topic. All ap-proved correspondence to the editor is published in thenumbered pages of the journal and is therefore archivedand searchable.

Supplements and theme issues

Supplements are collections of articles on a specifictopic and often related to a special meeting or confer-ence. They are usually funded by sources other than theAmerican Association of Orthodontists. When spon-sored by the AJO-DO, all scientific material is innumbered the pages and is archived the same as theregular monthly issues. Every effort is made to preventbias in the choice of articles and viewpoints in thesespecial issues. The following principles apply to sup-plemental or theme issues:

1. The journal editor has full responsibility for enforc-ing the policies, practices, and content of supple-ments, including complete control of the decision topublish all portions of the supplement. Editing by

the funding organization is not permitted.

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2. The journal editor has the authority to send allselected manuscripts for external peer review as isdone for all other scientific articles.

3. The sources of outside funding for the research,pub-lication, and related products considered for thesupplement must be clearly stated for all readersto see.

4. Advertising in supplements will follow the same

policies as for other issues of the AJO-DO.

5. Principles of authorship and financial conflict-of-interest disclosures for all monthly issues of theAJO-DO also apply to supplements.

This editorial is meant to show our support for andreliance on the Uniform Requirements for BiomedicalJournals developed by the International Committee ofMedical Journal Editors. Let me hear from you if youquestion any of these principles as applied to the

AJO-DO.