Compliance with Ethical Standards

To ensure objectivity and transparency in research and to ensure that accepted principles of ethical  and professional conduct have been followed, authors should include information regarding sources  of funding, potential conflicts of interest (financial or non-financial), informed consent if the research involved human participants, and a statement on welfare of animals if the research involved animals.

Authors should include the following statements (if applicable) in a separate section entitled “Compliance with Ethical Standards” before the References when submitting a manuscript:

• Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest
• Research involving Human Participants and/or Animals
• Informed consent

The corresponding author should be prepared to collect documentation of compliance with ethical standards and send if requested during peer review or after publication. The Editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned guidelines. The author will be held responsible for false statements or failure to fulfill the abovementioned guidelines. The following statements should be included in the text before the References section:

1. Disclosure of potential conflicts of interests
Authors must disclose all relationships or interests that could have direct or potential influence or impart bias on the work. Although an author may not feel there is any conflict, disclosure of relationships and interests provides a more complete and transparent process, leading to an accurate and objective assessment of the work. Awareness of real or perceived conflicts of interest is a perspective to which the readers are entitled. This is not meant to imply that a financial relationship with an organization that sponsored the research or compensation received for consultancy work is inappropriate. Examples of potential conflicts of interests that are directly or indirectly related to the research may include but are not limited to the following:

•          Research grants from funding agencies (please give the research funder and the grant number)
•          Honoraria for speaking at symposia
•          Financial support for attending symposia
•          Financial support for educational programs
•          Employment or consultation
•          Support from a project sponsor
•          Position on advisory board or board of directors or other type of management relationships
•          Multiple affiliations
•          Financial relationships, for example equity ownership or investment interest
•          Intellectual property rights (e.g. patents, copyrights and royalties from such rights)
•          Holdings of spouse and/or children that may have financial interest in the work

In addition, interests that go beyond financial interests and compensation (non-financial interests) that may be important to readers should be disclosed. These may include but are not limited to personal relationships or competing interests directly or indirectly tied to this research, or professional interests or personal beliefs that may influence your research.
The corresponding author collects the conflict of interest disclosure forms from all authors. In author collaborations where formal agreements for representation allow it, it is sufficient for the corresponding author to sign the disclosure form on behalf of all authors.
The corresponding author will include a summary statement in the text of the manuscript in a separate section before the reference list that reflects what is recorded in the potential conflict of interest disclosure form.
See below examples of disclosures:
Funding: This study was funded by X (grant number X).
Conflict of Interest: Author A has received research grants from Company A. Author B has received a speaker honorarium from Company X and owns stock in Company Y. Author C is a member of committee Z.
If no conflict exists, the authors should state:
Conflict of Interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

2. Statement of human rights
Research involving human participants
When reporting studies that involve human participants, authors should include a statement that the studies have been approved by the appropriate institutional and/or national research ethics committee and have been performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration or comparable standards, the authors must explain the reasons for their approach, and demonstrate that the independent ethics committee or institutional review board explicitly approved the doubtful  aspects of the study.

3. Statement on the welfare of animals
The welfare of animals used for research must be respected. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals have been followed, and that the studies have been approved by a research ethics committee at the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted (where such a committee exists).
For studies with animals, the following statement should be included in the text before the References section:

4. Ethical approval:
“All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.”
For retrospective studies, please add the following sentence:
“For this type of study formal consent is not required.”
The international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.
If applicable (where such a committee exists): “All procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted.”
If chapters do not contain studies with human participants or animals by any of the authors, please select one of the following statements:
“This chapter does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.”
“This chapter does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.”
“This chapter does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.”

5. Informed consent:
All individuals have individual rights that are not to be infringed. Individual participants in studies have, for example, the right to decide what happens to the (identifiable) personal data gathered, to what they have said during a study or an interview, as well as to any photograph that was taken.

Hence it is important that all participants gave their informed consent in writing prior to inclusion in the study. Identifying details (names, dates of birth, identity numbers and other information) of the participants that were studied should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and genetic profiles unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the participant (or parent or guardian if the participant is incapable) gave written informed consent for publication.
Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve in some cases, and informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of participants is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic profiles, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning.
The following statement should be included:
“Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.”
If identifying information about participants is available in the chapter, the following statement should be included:
“Additional informed consent was obtained from all individual participants for whom identifying information is included in this chapter.”

Declaration of Potential Conflict of interest 
The author declares if there is any potential conflict of interest for submission and publication of the manuscript. If any conflicts of interest arise, the editors will not make liable and they have the explicit right to deny publication, withdraw the published article and/or take necessary action to comply with publication ethics and standards. 
Thus, there should be no any real, perceived or potential conflicts interest in submission and publication of this article. Authors disclose in accordance with the requirements of the conflict of Interest Policy. There should not be any financial, commercial, legal, or professional relationship with other organizations, or with the people, that could influence to research study.
Moreover, there’s increasing pressure on researchers to show the societal impact of their research. Open access can help the researchers to reach new readers, beyond those with easy access to a research library.

Financial conflicts of interests include:
•    Employment or voluntary involvement
•    Collaborations with advocacy groups relating to the content of the article
•    Grants from an entity, paid to the author or organization
•    Personal fees received by the authors as honoraria, royalties, consulting fees, lecture fees, or testimonies
•    Patents held or pending by the authors, their institutions, funding organizations, or licensed to an entity, whether earning royalties or not
•    Royalties being received by the authors or their institutions
•    Stock or share ownership
•    Benefits related to the development of products as an outcome of the work

Non-financial conflicts of interests:
•    Receipt of drugs, specialist equipment, tools, computer programs, or digital applications
•    Access to data repositories, archival resources, museum collections, by an entity that might benefit, or be at a disadvantage financially or reputationally from the published findings
•    Holding a position on the boards of industry bodies or private companies that might benefit, or be at a disadvantage financially or reputationally from the published findings
•    Writing assistance or administrative support from a person or organization that might benefit, or be at a disadvantage from the published findings

•    Personal, political, religious, ideological, academic and intellectual competing interests which are perceived to be relevant to the published content
•    Involvement in legal action related to the work
So, if there are no competing interests to declare, authors should include a statement to the article to confirm that there are no relevant financial or non-financial competing interests to report. This research is sponsored by and may lead to the development of products which may be licensed after. That may have a business and/or financial interest. Therefore discloser of the interests fully has in place an approved plan for managing any potential conflicts arising from this arrangement.

 

I/we _______________________________________________ agree on the policy of journal, that the subjects have a right of his/her privacy (information, including subject’s names, initials, or hospital numbers), that it has not been infringed without informed consent. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve, however, and informed consent could be asked to obtain if there is any doubt. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors have to provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors reserve the right of so note. Informed consent requires that the patient who is identifiable should be shown the manuscript before final publication. Authors have to identify the individuals who provide assistance in writing the informed consent and disclose the funding source. The editorial has a right to refuse to publication of the written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the subject (or person responsible for the subject i.e. parent or guardian) provides written informed consent before publication. I/ we have read and understand the statement of informed consent and have no objection, if this E-signed statement is considered as legally binding under the law of the land. Furthermore, it is stated that I/ we have no hesitation if this consent is indicated in the published article.Undersigned:
Name, signature and date:______________________
Name, signature and date:______________________
Name, signature and date:______________________
Name, signature and date:______________________
Name, signature and date:______________________
Name of the authors typed in capital (this E-sign will be considered legally binding under law)