Ethics Statement

1. General Considerations

1. Ethical Approval

Where applicable, it is expected that studies can provide evidence of approval by an Ethical Review Board, which has weighed the potential benefits of the study against the risks, as well as appraising the quality of measures taken to ensure informed consent and protection of patients’ health and data.

2. Adherence to Legal Frameworks

Authors of scientific articles published herein are responsible not only for adherence to research-related frameworks such as ICJME, COPE, but also for adherence to the laws of their own country regarding research and data protection.

3. Ethical considerations

Within the methods section of the study, measures such as informed consent should be delineated. Furthermore, other relevant considerations are included in statements at the end of the manuscript, such as the Conflicts of Interest statement. These are a requirement to publish in this journal.

4. Conflicts of Interest

As mentioned above, conflicts of interest must be identified in the publication, through a statement at the end of the article. Conflicts of interest can include commercial interests held by one or more authors, as well as non-commercial interests. Reporting conflicts of interest with honesty is one method to improve the validity of research results and mitigate potential bias held by authors.

2. Authorship

We expect authors to conform to the ICMJE recommendations. In accordance with these recommendations and a general standard of practice, articles submitted for publication in KJS must be an honest and accurate representation of the work which has been carried out. All authors listed on a manuscript are responsible for ensuring that this is the case. Authors must also be conscientious when declaring conflicts of interest in the work, identifying pertinent funding, and detailing the pertinent ethical considerations and how they have been addressed.

Authors are also responsible for ensuring that their work is original, and the contributions of other authors are properly credited and cited.

In addition to the content, ICMJE recommendations should be followed with regard to who can be listed as an author. According to these recommendations, an author should be someone who meets ALL the following criteria:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

An author contributions statement should be provided, identifying which areas of the research project and the final manuscript were contributed by which author. Anyone who is not eligible for authorship according to the ICMJE criteria but has nevertheless contributed to the project should be included in the acknowledgments section, and the nature of their contribution should also be outlined.

3. Animal Subjects

Most studies published in the journal are unlikely to pertain to studies using animal testing. Nevertheless, where animal testing is used, adherence to the statement of the World Medical Association shall be observed. Some key principles are that the use of animal experiments must be associated with a clear need for their use and a clear potential benefit for the intervention; and that all animals involved in experiments must be treated humanely.

4. Human Subjects

It is important that all studies involving research on humans take the utmost care to protect and uphold their rights and safety. Our journal publishes studies that adhere to the Helsinki Declaration for research involving human subjects. This statement covers various aspects of patient rights, including most importantly when human subjects are needed and how informed consent should be treated.

1. Informed consent

Where it is required, i.e. in intervention studies or studies where personal information may be used, the informed consent process should be described in the article. Consent must be given voluntarily, by competent patients who are informed about the potential risks and benefits of participation in the study.

In the case of subjects who are physically or mentally incapable of giving consent, they should only be included in the study if the condition preventing informed consent is part of the research question of the study. If such a patient cannot give formal consent but is able to assent, researchers are required both to obtain agreement from the subject and the approval of an authorized representative, i.e. next of kin.

As participation in studies is voluntary, it must be made clear to subjects that they are free to withdraw their consent at any time, and any doctor-patient relationship will not be jeopardized.

2. Data protection

Data that can be used to identify a participant in a study should not be published. All data should be sufficiently anonymized, and where personal data such as gender, nationality, education level, or other demographic information is collected, should be with the informed consent of participants.

In case reports, more personal data is often required to give context to the case. Nevertheless, the principle stated above is still relevant, and researchers must make every effort to minimize the publication of personal data or sensitive data, and express that a written informed consent from the patient is required.

5. Scientific Misconduct

KJS does not tolerate scientific misconduct in any form and is determined to screen out any articles where the ethical standard of the journal is not met. Should a concern be raised against an accepted and published article, we will examine the information, using guidance from a variety of sources such as ICMJE ethical recommendations. We will explore any potential allegations of misconduct on a case-by-case basis, making use of COPE flowcharts for processing allegations of scientific misconduct.

Some potential types of misconduct include, but are not limited to:

• Fabrication or falsification of data
• Plagiarism
• Authorship practices such as a gift or ghost authorship

Allegations of misconduct or expressions of concern will be taken very seriously. In some cases, this may result in retraction of the article.