Table of Contents

• 1. Conflict-of-interests statement
• 2. Statement of human and animal rights
• 3. Statement of informed consent
• 4. Authorship
• 5. Originality and duplicate publication
• 6. Secondary publication
• 7. Publication of master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation

For the policies on research and publication ethics that are not stated in these instructions, the Good Publication Practice Guidelines for Medical Journals (https://www.kamje.or.kr/board/view?b_name=bo_publication&bo_id=13&per_page=) or the Guidelines on Good Publication Practice (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Guidelines) can be applied.

1. Conflict-of-interests statement

Authors are required to disclose commercial or similar relationships to products or companies mentioned in or related to the subject matter of the article being submitted. Sources of funding for the article should be acknowledged in a footnote on the title page. Affiliations of authors should include corporate appointments relating to or in connection with products or companies mentioned in the article, or otherwise bearing on the subject matter thereof. Other pertinent financial relationships, such as consultancies, stock ownership or other equity interests, or patent-licensing arrangements should be disclosed to the Editor-in-Chief in the cover letter at the time of submission. Such relationships may be disclosed in the Journal at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief in footnotes appearing on the title page. Questions about this policy should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief. If there is no conflict of interest, this should also be explicitly stated as “The author(s) declared no conflicts of interest.”

2. Statement of human and animal rights

Clinical research should be done in accordance with the Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects, outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/). Clinical studies that do not meet the Declaration of Helsinki will not be considered for publication. Research participants’ rights to privacy must be protected, and personal identifiable information should not be disclosed unless absolutely necessary. Human subjects should not be identifiable, i.e., patients’ names, initials, hospital numbers, dates of birth, photographs, or other protected healthcare information should not be disclosed. If such personal information is needed as scientific data for publication, this should be explained to participants (or legal guardians) and written consent must be obtained. The possibility of online information sharing (not only printed publications) must also be explained. For animal subjects, research should be performed based on the National or Institutional Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, and the ethical treatment of all experimental animals should be maintained. For studies using literature review and meta-analysis, Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval is not required. For secondary data analysis studies, the editorial committee will decide whether IRB approval is needed.

3. Statement of informed consent

Copies of written informed consents and IRB approval for clinical research should be kept. If necessary, the editor or reviewers may request copies of these documents to resolve questions about IRB approval and study conduct.

4. Authorship

All authors, including the co-authors, should be responsible for a significant part of the manuscript. All authors and co-authors should have taken part in writing the manuscript, reviewing it, and revising its intellectual and technical content. Any author whose name appears on a paper assumes responsibility and accountability for the results. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools cannot be listed as an author of a paper.

5. Originality and duplicate publication

All submitted manuscripts should be original and should not be considered by other scientific journals for publication at the same time. Manuscripts are accepted for publication with the understanding that their contents, or their essential substance, have not been published elsewhere, except in abstract form or by the express consent of the Editors. Any part of the accepted manuscript should not be duplicated in any other scientific journal without the permission of the Editorial Board. The duplication will be checked through SimilarityCheck powered by iThenticate (https://www.crossref.org/services/similarity-check/) before review. If duplicate publication related to the papers of this journal is detected, the authors will be announced in the journal and their institutes will be informed, and there also will be penalties for the authors. Materials taken from other sources must be accompanied by written permissions for reproduction, obtained from the original publisher. Editors should follow the procedure set out in the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) flowcharts (https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts-new/translations) that are designed to help editors follow COPE’s Code of Conduct and implement its advice when faced with cases of suspected misconduct.

6. Secondary publication

It is possible to republish manuscripts if the manuscripts satisfy the condition of secondary publication of the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (http://www.icmje.org).

7. Publication of master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation

When thesis or dissertation work is submitted for publication, the first author should be the thesis awarder and should declare that content is from thesis/dissertation.