Conflicts of Interest / Competing Interests / Other Disclosures

The Journal requires that the Author for Correspondence submits along with the manuscript a statement disclosing any conflict of interest [financial or non-financial] that any of the authors may have had with the publication of the manuscript or an institution or a product mentioned in the manuscript. Conflicts of interest with products competing with those mentioned in the manuscript should also be disclosed.

Human and Animal Rights, Ethical Considerations, and Informed Consent
Where the research involves human subjects, the authors must obtain an Institutional Ethical Committee or Institutional Review Board approval for the research. During the submission process, there must be a statement attesting to such approval and the name of the approving institution or committee. Also, the method of obtaining consent from the subjects [whether written or oral] should be stated in the methodology section. The Editor will take account of all ethical issues and reserves the right to reject a manuscript in which research involves protocols that are inconsistent with commonly accepted norms of human and animal research.

Confidentiality / Protection of Patients’ Rights to Privacy
All manuscripts submitted to the Journal are treated as confidential. Both editors and reviewers are required not to reveal any details of a manuscript or its review, during or after the peer-review process, beyond the information released by the Journal. However, in cases of misconduct, the manuscript may be released to committees or institutions involved in settling the misconduct. Authors should remove identifying information or features from figures, photographs, sonograms, and x-ray/CT films. Where these are included, a written informed consent from the patients, permitting such identifying information, should be attached during the submission process.

Animal Rights
Where animals are used for research, authors should ensure that fundamental principles are observed: animals should be treated with respect, without inflicting unnecessary pain, and are only used to address important research questions where alternative subjects are not available