Acta Medica Peruana (AMP) follows ethical standards for scientific research and publication; therefore, when research has been carried out in humans, it is necessary to mention that the study has been approved by an Institutional Ethics Committee. The Editorial Committee reserves its right to request documented proof for this approval.

The following manuscripts do not require an approval by an Institutional Ethics Committee: 1) Studies using public domain secondary databases, including systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and bibliometric studies; 2) Public health surveillance interventions; 3) Research on outbreaks or sanitary emergency events; 4) Public health program evaluations; and 5) Educational evaluations scheduled within academic curricula.

The following manuscripts do require an approval by an Institutional Ethics Committee: 1) Research performed in human beings; 2) Research directly using human biological material or data from potentially identifiable human beings, such as data from biobanks or medical records. This case will apply as long as the previously presented exceptions may not be applicable.

The Editorial Committee suggests following the recommendations from these regulations and those from national and international instances: The World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki (WMA, 2013), the WMA declaration on Ethical Considerations for Healthcare and Biobanks Data Bases (2016), the International Ethical Regulations for Health Related Research in Humans issued by the  Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) (2017) and the Peruvian Regulations for Clinical Trials (Supreme Decree N° 021-2017-SA and its updated versions).

Ethics for publication

Acta Medica Peruana (AMP) adheres to the recommendations issued by the Committee in Publication Ethics (COPE; https://publicationethics.org) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). AMP actively looks for potential faults against publication ethics, such as plagiarism, redundant publication, data manipulation and invention, as well as those related with authorship and institutional affiliation(s). Should such situations occur during the publication process, the manuscript will be rejected; in case the paper has been published, a rectification will be issued. This will take place after a proper investigation of the case has been performed and after the implicated author(s) had exerted their proper defense, following COPE flow charts. In both cases, competent institutions will be informed, i.e. the institutions where the author(s) work, their financing parties, their corresponding professional organizations and ethical committees that had approved the study, when appropriate. Also, the Ethics and Deontology Committee of the Peruvian College of Physicians will be informed, if deemed necessary.

In case of doubt about any ethical misconduct, author(s) may contact the Editorial Committee in order to obtain adequate orientation (actamedicaperuana@cmp.org.pe).

Potential conflicts of interests of members of the Editorial Committee

Any manuscript including any member of AMP Editorial Committee is not exempt from complying with the requisites specified in these instructions, and manuscripts to be processed will follow the same pathway that has been outlined for any paper; nonetheless, the process will take place without the participation of the involved Editorial Committee member. This means he/she will not be able to participate in any session regarding that particular manuscript (decision, review), and he will not know the names of the assigned reviewers. Also, members of the Editorial Committee will have to declare their potential conflicts of interest with respect to that particular manuscript, and they will inhibit themselves from decision making on that issue.