Article Ethics Requirements

Article Ethics Requirements

Impact Surgery publishes research that meets recognised ethical, regulatory, and professional standards for clinical, translational, and health services research. All submissions must comply with the requirements set out below. Manuscripts that do not meet these requirements may be rejected without external peer review or returned to authors for clarification prior to editorial consideration. Authors are responsible for ensuring that all necessary approvals, consents, and declarations have been obtained before submission and are clearly reported within the manuscript.

Ethical approval and oversight

All research involving human participants, human data, or human biological material must have received prior approval from an appropriate research ethics committee or institutional review board. The manuscript must state the name of the approving body, the approval reference number, and the date of approval. Where formal ethical approval was not required, authors must provide a clear justification, including the basis for exemption and the authority granting it. Studies conducted under national or institutional audit, quality improvement, or service evaluation frameworks must be clearly identified as such. The editorial team may request additional documentation to confirm the ethical status of the work.

Informed consent

Informed consent must be obtained from all participants where required. The manuscript must describe how consent was obtained and whether it was written or verbal. For studies involving vulnerable populations or individuals with reduced capacity, authors must explain the safeguards in place and the consent process used. Where consent was waived by an ethics committee, this must be stated explicitly in the manuscript together with the justification for the waiver.

Patient confidentiality and anonymity

Patient confidentiality must be protected at all times. Identifiable information must not be included unless it is essential for scientific purposes and the participant has provided explicit written consent for publication. This includes names, initials, hospital numbers, and recognisable images. Authors must ensure that text, tables, figures, and supplementary material do not contain information that could reasonably identify an individual. Where patient images or detailed intraoperative photographs are included, written consent for publication must be obtained and made available to the journal on request.

Clinical trial and study registration

Prospective clinical trials must be registered in a publicly accessible trial registry prior to enrolment of the first participant. The registry name and registration number must be included in the manuscript, typically in the abstract or methods section. Acceptable registries include, but are not limited to, ClinicalTrials.gov and the ISRCTN registry.

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should be registered prospectively, for example in the PROSPERO database, and the registration number should be reported in the manuscript where applicable.

Studies that were not prospectively registered must be clearly identified as such at submission. The editorial team will consider unregistered studies on a case-by-case basis, and lack of appropriate registration may affect editorial decisions.

Reporting guidelines

Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with relevant reporting guidelines appropriate to the study design. These include CONSORT for randomised trials, STROBE for observational studies, PRISMA for systematic reviews, and CARE for case-based reports. A completed reporting guideline checklist must be uploaded as supplementary material, with page numbers indicating where each item is addressed in the manuscript. Reporting guidelines are available via the EQUATOR Network (https://www.equator-network.org).

Use of human tissue and biological material

Research involving human tissue, samples, or biological material must comply with applicable legal and ethical requirements in the jurisdiction where the research was conducted. The manuscript must state the source of the material, the consent process used, and the approvals obtained.

Animal research

Impact Surgery does not publish animal research. Where animal data are included as part of translational or methodological work, authors must ensure compliance with relevant national and international standards for animal welfare and must report ethical approval accordingly.

Conflicts of interest and funding

All authors must declare any potential conflicts of interest, including financial, professional, or personal relationships that could be perceived to influence the work. A conflicts of interest statement must be included in the manuscript. Sources of funding must be clearly stated, including the role of the funder in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, and manuscript preparation. Where no external funding was received, this should be stated explicitly.

Data integrity and research misconduct

Authors are expected to present research honestly, accurately, and transparently. Fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, and inappropriate image manipulation are not acceptable. The journal may use plagiarism detection software and may request access to raw data where concerns arise. Suspected cases of research misconduct will be handled in accordance with recognised publication ethics guidance, including that of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE): https://publicationethics.org. Where necessary, the journal may contact authors’ institutions or other relevant bodies.

Post-publication responsibilities

Authors have an ongoing responsibility to notify the journal promptly if they become aware of errors, ethical concerns, or issues affecting the integrity of their published work. The journal may issue corrections, retractions, or expressions of concern where appropriate, in line with its published policies.