Researchers should be free to pursue lines of inquiry and the communication of knowledge and ideas without fear of repression or censorship. At the same time, they have the ethical obligation to uphold intellectual integrity and avoid preventable harms that may arise in the course of research.
Research should respect the dignity and rights of human and non-human research participants, tangible and intangible heritage, natural resources and the environment. Harms may arise as a direct and indirect result of a research project. That is with the knowledge that non-maleficence and beneficence must always remain the two fundamental principles in research ethics. The pursuit of knowledge, although a public good, may be superseded by considerations of harm and a decision not to undertake or not to publish a project may be warranted. Editors will consider harms that might result from the publication of a piece of scholarly communication and may seek external guidance on such potential harms in risk, possibly resulting in the decision to decline publication.
Journals reporting experiments on live non-human animals must include a statement identifying the institutional and/or licensing committee approving the experiments, and the corresponding author must confirm that all experiments were performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.
For studies involving humans categorized by race, ethnicity, national or social origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, political or other beliefs, and disease, (dis)ability, socio-economic status, or other socially constructed or socially relevant groupings, authors should:
All content submitted for publication is expected to be respectful of the dignity and rights of individuals and human groups. Authors should use inclusive, respectful, bias-free and non-stigmatizing language in their submitted manuscripts, and they should ensure that writing is free from stereotypes or cultural assumptions. Studies that use the constructs of race and/or ethnicity should explicitly motivate their use, and race/ethnicity should not be used as proxies for other variables – for example, socioeconomic status or income. Biomedical studies should not conflate genetic ancestry (a biological construct) and race/ethnicity (socio-political constructs).
Editors reserve the right to request modifications to (or correct or otherwise amend post-publication), and in severe cases refuse publication of (or retract post-publication):
Researchers are encouraged to include sex and gender considerations where relevant. Authors should use the terms sex (biological attribute) and gender (shaped by social and cultural circumstances) carefully in order to avoid confusing both terms.
A title and/or abstract should indicate when the findings apply to only one sex or gender. Authors should describe whether sex and gender were considered in the study design, whether sex and/or gender or participants was determined based on self-report or assigned (and methodology used). If sex- and gender-based analyses have been performed a priori, results should be reported regardless of positive or negative outcome. Authors should refrain from conducting post hoc sex- and gender-based analysis if the study design is insufficient (for example, low sample size) to enable meaningful conclusions. If no sex- and gender-based analyses have been performed, authors should justify reasons for lack of analysis.
Researchers are encouraged to promote equality between men and women in their academic research which by nature should be grounded on the recognition of merit, competences and creativity, regardless of any other personal attributes or orientation.
Sexist, misogynistic and/or anti-LGBTQ+ content is ethically objectionable. Regardless of content type (research, review or opinion) and, for research, regardless of whether a research project was reviewed and approved by appropriate ethics specialists, editors may raise with the authors concerns regarding potentially sexist, misogynistic, and/or anti-LGBTQ+ assumptions, implications or speech in their submission; engage external ethics experts to provide input on such issues as part of the peer review process; or request modifications to (or correct or otherwise amend post-publication), and in severe cases refuse publication of (or retract post-publication) sexist, misogynistic, and/or anti-LGBTQ+ content.
When publishing identifiable images from human research participants in JoHS, authors include a statement in the published paper affirming that they have obtained informed consent for publication of the images. All reasonable measures must be taken to protect patient anonymity. Black bars over the eyes are not acceptable means of anonymization. In certain cases, we may insist upon obtaining evidence of informed consent from authors. Images without appropriate consent will be removed from publication.
Some manuscripts provide information that could be directly misapplied to pose a significant threat to public health, safety or security, agricultural crops and other plants, animals, or the environment. For such information to be published, the benefit to the research community, society, or to public health, must outweigh any risks. We reserve the right to take expert advice in cases where we believe that concerns may arise, and we may require a manuscript to undergo peer review specifically to assess the dual use risk. Where the risk of misuse outweighs any potential benefit, publication is declined; published content may be corrected, retracted or removed.
Researchers are expected to comply with their institutional and funder’s requirements, as well as any national regulations. They should be aware of dual-use concerns related to their work and take steps to minimize misuse of their research. Such concerns include, but are not limited to, biosecurity, nuclear and chemical threats. Where relevant regulations exist, authors should disclose whether their study is subject to consideration as dual use research of concern; if it is, the manuscript should report the authority granting approval and reference number for the regulatory approval. When the study reports material that can be harmful outside the laboratory context, the manuscript should describe appropriate containment (e.g. biosafety) procedures.
We recognize the widespread view that openness in science helps to alert society to potential threats and to defend against them, and we anticipate that only very rarely will the risks be perceived as outweighing the benefits of publishing a paper that has otherwise been deemed appropriate for publication.
The Journal of Healthcare Simulation - Advances in Theory & Practice (JoHS) is a single-blind peer-reviewed open access journal.
The journal is a member of Crossref and is actively exploring opportunities for inclusion in the leading scientific indexes. Each article is given a unique digital object identifier (DOI), these are shared with the scientific community through channels including Crossref and Google Scholar.
