Ethics
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).
Author rights and intellectual property: 1) The author will sign a copyright agreement before the publication is issued; 2) Intellectual property protection / Exclusive license contract: the original author will preserve the copyright for his/her paper, but AMP reserves commercial rights for publication, as well as the rights for summary publication.
Ethics for publication
Acta Medica Peruana (AMP) adheres itself to recommendations issued by the Committee in Publication Ethics (COPE; https://publicationethics.org), specifically: Code of conduct and guidelines on good practices for Journal editors, and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). AMP reviews potential faults against ethics in publication, such as plagiarism, redundant publication, as well as faults related with authorship and institutional affiliation. Should this occur during the publication process, the paper will be rejected; in case the paper had already been published, retractation will take place. This will occur after an investigation process and deposition from implicated author(s), according to COPE flow charts. In both cases, competent authorities, the institutions where the authors come from, sponsors, professional organizations, and ethics committees that approved the study, will be informed, if pertinent. Also, the case will be reported to the Ethics and Deontology Committee of the Peruvian College of Physicians, if deemed necessary.
Journal editors may publish in AMP; however, they will not participate in any of the editorial processes of their manuscripts and will be exempt from discussions when they are decided upon. This will be made explicit in the article if it is published.
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).
