Intended for healthcare professionals Access provided by KU Leuven Libraries Subscribe My Account BMA member login Login Edition: International Our company The BMJ logo Search covid-19 Research Education News & Views Campaigns Jobs Archive For authors Hosted Forms, policies, and ethics Transparency policy The mission of The BMJ is to lead the debate on health and to engage, inform, and stimulate all doctors and health care researchers in ways that enable them to make better decisions and improve outcomes for patients. Underpinning these aims, The BMJ has a set of ethical editorial principles, an ethics advisory committee, and a commitment to transparency. We try to ensure that readers, authors, and editors know as much about the background to each other’s work as possible. We do this through policies such as open peer review, declaring competing interests, and explaining the role of the bodies that fund research. There are many other policies and principles that help The BMJ to be an ethical publisher, and we have brought all of them together in this single transparency policy. You can reach the policies listed below simply by clicking on the links. We will add to The BMJ’s transparency policy as often as we need to. Please contact us if you feel there is anything missing. Other aspects of transparency Publication ethics The BMJ aims to ensure that all articles published in The BMJ report on work that is morally acceptable, and expects authors to follow the World Medical Association's Declaration of Helsinki. Copyright and open access Since January 2000, The BMJ has not asked authors (or their employers) of journal articles to assign us their copyright, instead requiring in most cases an exclusive licence from them. All Research articles published by The BMJ are published by default as open access (irrespective of who funded the research) and reuse is subject to an applicable Creative Commons licence (CC BY-NC). We do also request payment for these research articles being made available on an open access basis. If authors wish any other article to be available for viewing on an open access basis, such publication can be requested and if agreed by The BMJ (including the payment of any required fees) be published on this basis. Competing interests A competing interest — often called a conflict of interest — exists when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as patients' welfare or the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain or personal rivalry). We believe that, to make the best decision on how to deal with an article, we should know about any competing interests that authors may have, and that if we publish the article readers should know about them too. Scientific misconduct There are differing definitions of scientific misconduct. At The BMJ, we deal with these problems on a case by case basis while following guidance produced by the major publication ethics bodies. Patient consent, confidentiality, and images of patients Our policy is based on the UK's data protection law and the English common law of confidentiality. UK authors should be aware that the General Medical Council has extensive guidance on patient consent and confidentiality and that our policy is in line with GMC advice. Editorial duty of confidentiality towards authors The BMJ's editors treat all submitted manuscripts as confidential documents, which means they will not divulge information about a manuscript to anyone without the authors' permission. During the process of manuscript review the following people may also have access to manuscripts: • Editors and editorial staff at The BMJ, including medical students on placement and occasional overseas visitors - usually doctors or editors from other journals; • External reviewers, including statisticians and experts in trial methods; • Members of the journal's editorial committees, comprising the final stage in our peer review process for original research articles; • The only occasion when details about a manuscript might be passed to a third party without the authors’ permission is if the editor suspects serious research misconduct. Criticism of health professionals The BMJ sometimes publishes articles that criticise health professionals. Being a professional implies operating to a higher ethical standard than the general population. Thus, when balancing the interest of patients and the profession against those of an individual professional, The BMJ has an obligation to give more weight to the interests of patients and the profession than might be the case if a publication was balancing the interest of a lay individual against those of the general community. The BMJ has guidelines on articles in which the health professionals are clearly identified and those in which they are not, and some elements are common to both. ICMJE Requirements for all manuscripts submitted to The BMJ All submissions to The BMJ must conform to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. Our requirements reflect those of the ICMJE, although we also have specific requirements for different types of article and particularly detailed ones for research articles. Authorship and contributorship The BMJ follows The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (ICMJE Recommendations 2018) with regards to authorship, contributorship and group authorship. Press and embargo policy We have a clear embargo policy with recognised media organisations and journalists. We issue press releases ahead of publication to allow journalists and broadcasters to write a sensible, considered story about the articles that are press released. In return they undertake not to publish their stories before the embargo date. This is a well understood policy, to ours and the press’s mutual benefit, and in general the press observe it. We do not “tip off” any other people or organisations who might like to know ahead of time what an article says. The reasons for this are: • Practical issues: It is hard to define exactly who might like to know in advance about an article in The BMJ – and particularly hard to draw a line of what sort of organisation should fall within the line. The deal with the press is easily defined, well understood, and The BMJ benefits from it as well as the press. • We can’t be sure that organisations won’t leak information. • It's a distraction from our job of publishing the best stuff we can. NB: This policy does not mean that we and our writers won’t contact people who are mentioned in articles to gain a comment that we might include in the article. If an organisation is contacted directly by a journalist for a comment on a particular paper, while under embargo, we do send them a copy of the paper to enable them to make an informed comment. But we always stress that the material is under embargo and should not be circulated. Research about workforces Guidelines about informing workforces about the results of research in which they have participated before publication in mass media. Research undertaken with workforces can take place only with their full cooperation. Understandably, they expect to hear from the researchers about the results of the research and its implications for them before publication in the mass media. About The BMJ Publishing model Editorial staff Advisory panels Explore The BMJ BMJ Student How green is The BMJ? Sources of revenue The BMJ Collections Resources for authors Article types and preparation Article submission Forms, policies, and ethics Authorship & contributorship Competing interest policy Copyright, open access, and permission to reuse Patient consent and confidentiality Research Ethics BMJ papers audit Guidance for new authors BMJ Christmas issue 作者须知 Resources for advertisers and sponsors Resources for BMA members Resources for media Resources for subscribers Resources for readers Resources for reviewers About The BMJ app Poll archive Contact us UK jobs International jobs Kings College Hospital Dubai: Consultants IWK Health Centre: Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist Doctors Express: Emergency Department Physician NZLocums & NZMedJobs: General Practitioners Canada Medical Careers: Recruiting GP’s for GREAT positions across Canada! View more This week's poll Is it my moral duty to cover shifts in the absence of staff? Yes No Vote View Results Read related article See previous polls Follow us on Twitter Facebook YouTube Pinterest RSS Content links Collections Health in South Asia Women’s, children’s & adolescents’ health Zika virus Research Education News and views BMJ Opinion Rapid responses Archive About us About us Editorial staff BMJ in the USA BMJ in South Asia Advisers Policies Submit your paper Resources Authors Reviewers BMA members Readers Subscribers Advertisers and sponsors Media Recruiters Explore BMJ Our company BMJ Careers BMJ Learning BMJ Masterclasses BMJ Journals BMJ Student Academic edition of The BMJ BMJ Best Practice The BMJ Awards My account Email alerts Activate subscription Information Contact us Complaints Cookie settings Cookie Policy Privacy policy Website T&Cs Revenue Sources HighWire Press Sitemap Copyright © 2021 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 京ICP备15042040号-3 Cookies and privacy We and our partners store and/or access information on a device, such as unique IDs in cookies to process personal data. You may accept or manage your choices by clicking below, including your right to object where legitimate interest is used, or at any time in the privacy policy page. These choices will be signaled to our partners and will not affect browsing data.Cookie policy We and our partners process data to provide: Store and/or access information on a device, Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development, Use precise geolocation data, Actively scan device characteristics for identification List of Partners (vendors) I Accept Show Purposes