Submission of an article is understood to imply that the article is original and unpublished and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. Any possible conflict of interest, financial or otherwise, related to the submitted work must be clearly indicated in the manuscript. Procedures involving experiments on human subjects should be in accord with the ethical standards of the Committee on Human Experimentation of the institution in which the experiments were done or in accord with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975. The author must state compliance in the cover letter and in the Methods section of the article.
Procedures involving experimentation on animal subjects should be in accord with either the guide of the institution in which the experiments were done, or with the National Research Council’s guide for the care and use of laboratory animals. The author must state compliance in the cover letter and in the Methods section of the article.
Preferably patients in figures should be unrecognizable. Authors are responsible for obtaining patient permission for use of the material from all recognizable participants in photographs, videos, or other information that may be published in the Journal or on the journal’s website. A statement that permission was granted by the patient must accompany the figure legend. Do not use study participants' names, initials, hospital numbers, or other personal health information anywhere in the manuscript (including figures).