Patient consent and confidentiality
Any manuscript containing patient personal data must comply with PJO’s policy on anonymization and patient consent and confidentiality. PJO reserves the right to refuse to publish any manuscript which does not comply with the requirements set out in this policy.
Any article that contains personal medical information about an identifiable living individual requires the patient’s explicit consent before we can publish it. We will need the patient to sign our consent form. The consent form is available in English and Filipino and the author must ensure that the form is in a language that the patient understands. When informed consent has been obtained it is indicated on the published article.
If consent cannot be obtained because the patient cannot be traced, then publication will be possible only if the information can be sufficiently anonymised. Anonymisation means that neither the patient nor anyone else could identify the patient. A consequence of any anonymisation is likely to be the loss of information/evidence.
If the patient is under the age of 18, we require parents or guardians to provide consent on behalf of the minor. Where the child has sufficient understanding of the consent process and its implications, the child must also sign the consent form.
Our policy on obtaining consent for publication of pictures or videos of patients is a subset of our general policy on patient confidentiality. If there is any chance that a patient may be identified from a photograph or other static or moving image, or from its legend or accompanying text, we need the patient’s written consent to publication by PJO.
Images – such as x rays, laparoscopic images, ultrasound images, pathology slides, or images of undistinctive parts of the body – or multimedia files (e.g. video, audio) may be used without consent so long as they are anonymized by the removal of any identifying marks and are not accompanied by text that could reveal the patient’s identity through clinical or personal detail.
If a submitting author provides a signed PJO consent form for full facial images, we will request an unobscured version so it is clear to our readers that the patient has consented for their image to appear in our publications. Please ensure all images are cropped to show only relevant clinical features.
Advertising policy
PJO accepts advertising for products and services that are of interest to users in their personal and as well as professional lives. Advertisements and sponsorship must be legal, decent and truthful and comply with the relevant laws, regulations and industry codes for the geographic area in which they appear.
Our readers should immediately be able to distinguish between advertising and editorial content. Advertisement features need to conform to PJO specifications.
Advertisements for products should comply with their marketing authorization.
PJO does not allow advertising or sponsorship to influence editorial decisions.
Online advertising or sponsorship should not impede users’ access to editorial content.
We accept advertising and sponsorship from competitors.
We do not accept advertising or sponsorship relating to tobacco products, or to products and services from tobacco companies, their foundations, or their wholly owned subsidiaries.
Advertising and sponsorship are subject to editorial oversight.
Although all advertising materials are expected to conform to ethical and medical standards, the appearance of advertising in PJO does not constitute a guarantee or endorsement by the PJO or the PAO of the quality or value of the product or the claims for it by its manufacturer
Research ethics policy
Our policy is to ensure that all articles published by PJO report on work that is morally acceptable, and expects authors to follow the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki. To achieve this, we aim to appraise the ethical aspects of any submitted work that involves human participants, whatever descriptive label is given to that work including research, audit, and sometimes debate.
If the research article has undergone ethics approval, the authors should include a statement that the study obtained ethics approval (or a statement that it was not required and why), including the name of the ethics committee(s) or institutional review board(s), the number/ID of the approval(s), and a statement that participants gave informed consent before taking part.
Editorial appraisal of ethical issues goes beyond simply deciding whether participants in a study gave informed consent although this is, of course, one very important issue to consider. Editors should judge whether the overall design and conduct of each piece of work is morally justifiable. Editors may ask other editorial colleagues to evaluate the ethical aspects of an article, the authors’ comments, and the response of the relevant research ethics committee to the journal’s queries about ethics approval.
All material published in PJO journals which reports experiments performed using animals must adhere to high ethical standards concerning animal welfare. Manuscripts will be considered for publication only if the work described follows international, national and institutional guidelines for the humane treatment of animals and complies with relevant legislation. Before a manuscript can be accepted, authors must confirm that legal and ethical requirements have been met with regards to the humane treatment of animals described in the study. Editors retain the right to reject manuscripts on the basis of ethical or animal welfare concerns. Papers may be rejected on ethical grounds if the study involves unnecessary pain, distress, suffering or lasting harm to animals, or if the severity of the experimental procedure does not appear to be justified by the value of the work presented.
Data sharing and privacy policy
While data sharing is not mandatory, PJO reserves the right to request at any time confidential access to any primary data needed to reproduce the article so that the results reported can be verified. Editors may also use data availability statements to inform their editorial decisions.
Process for handling cases requiring corrections, retractions, and editorial expressions of concern
PJO does not permit marked or significant changes to be made to manuscripts after acceptance. We expect authors to make any significant changes to their work at the revision stage, prior to acceptance.
We expect authors to inform of any errors of fact they have noticed (or have been informed of) in their article once published. Corrections are made at the journal’s discretion.
As Publishers, we have a duty to maintain the integrity of the scientific record. For this reason, minor corrections that do not affect the scientific understanding of the paper (for example formatting or typographical errors or preference of wording) may be rejected if submitted post-publication in order to prevent discrepancies downstream.
Retractions are considered by journal editors in cases of evidence of unreliable data or findings, plagiarism, duplicate publication, and unethical research. We may consider an expression of concern notice if an article is under investigation. All retraction notices explain why the article was retracted. The retraction procedure depends on the publication stage of the article:
In rare cases, we may have to remove the original content for legal reasons. In such cases we will leave the metadata (title and authors) and replace the text with a note saying the article has been removed for legal reasons. A retraction notice will also be published online and/or in print.
Scientific misconduct
Submission to PJO implies that the work described has not been accepted for publication elsewhere, that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere and does not duplicate material already published.
If an editor has concerns that a submitted article describes something that might be considered to constitute misconduct in research, publication or professional behaviour, we may discuss the case in confidence with the Philippine Academy of Ophthalmology Ethics Committee. PJO may also choose to publish an expression of concern pending the outcomes of any cases.
If the case cannot be resolved by discussion with the author(s) and the Editor still has concerns, the case may be reported to the appropriate authorities. If, during the course of reviewing an article, an editor is alerted to possible problems (for example, fraudulent data) in another publication, the editor may contact the journal in which the previous publication appeared to raise concern.
Readers that suspect misconduct in a published article are encouraged to report this to the relevant journal editor.