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417 Reporting of Ethical Issues in Indian Physiotherapy Journals S. SRIKESAVAN SABAPATHY, KAMAL JANAKIRAMAN, C . C Y N T H I A S WA R N A L AT H A A N D M . AY YA N A R Introduction Reporting of ethics related issues during publication not only gives credibility to the study but also increases the confidence of the readers and public. The first guideline of the Nuremburg code makes it clear that voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential for research.1 Principle B-15 of the Helsinki Declaration (2008) emphasises that a research study should be submitted for consideration, comment, guidance and approval of an ethics committee. Principle B-30 of the Helsinki Declaration (2008) also mentions that the author is responsible for the completeness of the report. It also mentions that studies which have not been conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration should not be accepted for publication.2 Editors have a large responsibility ensuring that only research conducted in the most ethical manner is published. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), in their “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication”, have mentioned that when informed consent has been taken, it has to be reported in the published article.3 The same can be applicable for ethics committee clearance. The guidelines also go on to mention that anyone who has assisted in the study design, data collection, analysis of data and manuscript preparation but have not qualified for authorship, should be acknowledged in the publication. The ethical guidelines for biomedical research on human participants published by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in 2006 mentions that if photographs are used in published articles, appropriate consent should have been obtained.4 Asian Bioethics Review December 2009 Volume 1, Issue 4 417–425 F I N D I N G S R e p o r t i n g O f E t h i c a l I s s u e s i n I n d i a n P h y s i o t h e r a p y J o u r n a l s S . S r i k e s a v a n S a b a p a t h y e t a l . A s i a n B i o e t h i c s R e v i e w D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 9 Vo l u m e 1 , I s s u e 4 418 The ethical guidelines for social science research in health published by the Center for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes (CEHAT), Mumbai, India also mention that the publication should mention how ethical guidelines were followed.5 In other studies considering whether these standards have been met, we found variable results. Olsen et al. (1996)6 reviewed 43 articles related to interventional research in human cardiopulmonary resuscitation and reported that 51% mentioned ethic committee approval and 26% addressed subjects’ consent. Miguel Ruiz-Canela et al. (1999)7 studied 767 clinical trials and found that the proportions of not reporting informed consent and ethics committee clearance was 19.8% and 29.2% respectively. Another study by Bauchner et al. (2001)8 reviewed articles related to child health research from five leading journals and reported that 340 articles out of 560 (61%) reported ethic committee approval. Veronica Yank et al. (2002)9 reviewed 300 articles published before 1997 and 300 articles published after 1999. They found that informed consent was not mentioned in 26% of articles published before 1997 and in 18% published after 1997. In the same study, ethics committee clearance was not mentioned in 31% before 1997 and 18% published after 1997. Meschia et al. (2004)10 found that out of 41 articles related to genetics studies of stroke, 29% did not report informed consent and 37% did not report ethics committee clearance. A study by S. Schroter et al. (2006)11 conducted in March 2003 found that only 31% of the manuscripts mentioned ethics committee approval and only 47% mentioned...

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