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).

Journal options for post-publication discussions and corrections: Post-publication discussions and corrections will be processed by email atactamedicaperuana@cmp.org.pe and may be sent by the corresponding author.

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.

Journal Policies on Authorship and Contribution: Authors must be qualified for such authorship, and must have been sufficiently involved in the work to take responsibility for its content. They must meet these criteria: 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or data acquisition, or data analysis and interpretation; 2) writing of the article or critical revision of its important intellectual content; and 3) final approval of the version to be published. In addition, they must meet conditions 1, 2 and 3. Obtaining funding, data collection or general supervision of the research group do not justify authorship.

Attention to complaints and resources: The Journal will receive complaints and resources through the email actamedicaperuana@cmp.org.pe. The Journal will follow the COPE flowcharts for handling complaints and appeals.

Policies on conflicts of interest: The Editorial Team and the reviewers will refrain in case of conflict of interest about an author, some authors or the content of their manuscript to be evaluated. The Editorial Team will avoid any conflict of interest between the authors, reviewers and themselves. The Editorial Team and reviewers must refrain from making decisions when: there is a direct relationship between authorship and a reviewer; there is recent and significant professional collaboration between reviewers and authors; the editor or reviewer is a contributor to the article being submitted; the editor or reviewer considers that his evaluation cannot be objective, either for personal reasons or for economic interest.

Journal Policies on Data Sharing and Reproducibility: Although the journal does not require data sharing, confidential access to the primary data needed to reproduce the article may be requested at any time to verify results. The journal encourages authors to cite publicly available research data in their reference lists. References to data sets must include a persistent identifier. We encourage research data to be made available under open licenses for unrestricted reuse.

Ethical supervision policy of the Journal: The ethical supervision of the Journal is the responsibility of the Editorial Committee. The Journal adhered to the COPE good practice policies and the management of faults follows its flowcharts.

Journal Policy on Intellectual Property: The Editorial Board will resolve intellectual property issues and possible violations in accordance with specific laws and conventions. Best practices for editors would include the following actions: adoption of plagiarism detection systems (in the case of this journal, anti-plagiarism software is used on all submitted articles); support for authors whose copyrights have been

Journal options for post-publication discussions and corrections: Post-publication discussions and corrections will be processed by email atactamedicaperuana@cmp.org.pe and may be sent by the corresponding author.

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.

Journal Policies on Authorship and Contribution: Authors must be qualified for such authorship, and must have been sufficiently involved in the work to take responsibility for its content. They must meet these criteria: 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or data acquisition, or data analysis and interpretation; 2) writing of the article or critical revision of its important intellectual content; and 3) final approval of the version to be published. In addition, they must meet conditions 1, 2 and 3. Obtaining funding, data collection or general supervision of the research group do not justify authorship.

Attention to complaints and resources: The Journal will receive complaints and resources through the email actamedicaperuana@cmp.org.pe. The Journal will follow the COPE flowcharts for handling complaints and appeals.

Policies on conflicts of interest: The Editorial Team and the reviewers will refrain in case of conflict of interest about an author, some authors or the content of their manuscript to be evaluated. The Editorial Team will avoid any conflict of interest between the authors, reviewers and themselves. The Editorial Team and reviewers must refrain from making decisions when: there is a direct relationship between authorship and a reviewer; there is recent and significant professional collaboration between reviewers and authors; the editor or reviewer is a contributor to the article being submitted; the editor or reviewer considers that his evaluation cannot be objective, either for personal reasons or for economic interest.

Journal Policies on Data Sharing and Reproducibility: Although the journal does not require data sharing, confidential access to the primary data needed to reproduce the article may be requested at any time to verify results. The journal encourages authors to cite publicly available research data in their reference lists. References to data sets must include a persistent identifier. We encourage research data to be made available under open licenses for unrestricted reuse.

Ethical supervision policy of the Journal: The ethical supervision of the Journal is the responsibility of the Editorial Committee. The Journal adhered to the COPE good practice policies and the management of faults follows its flowcharts.

Journal Policy on Intellectual Property: The Editorial Board will resolve intellectual property issues and possible violations in accordance with specific laws and conventions. Best practices for editors would include the following actions: adoption of plagiarism detection systems (in the case of this journal, anti-plagiarism software is used on all submitted articles); support for authors whose copyrights have been victims of plagiarism.