Adherence of the Annals of Pediatric Endocrinology & Metabolism to the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.

It was a great honor to be invited as an Ethics Editor by Dr. Ji-Eun Lee, an Editor-in-Chief of the Annals of Pediatric Endocrinology & Metabolism (the official journal of the Korean Society of Pediatric Endocrinology) and to submit an article on the ethics policy of this journal. I was very happy to have the opportunity to reflect on the ethics policy of this esteemed journal. Strict compliance with international standard of publication ethics is mandatory for all scholarly journals. Therefore, in this editorial, I review whether the recent content of the journal complies with standards of publication ethics.

Principles of transparency and best practice in scholarly publishing

The Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (joint statement by Committee on Publication Ethics, Directory of Open Access Journals, World Association of Medical Editors, and Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association) [1] is the most popular international standard of publication ethics and will be employed in this editorial. The principles consist of 16 items, each of which will be reviewed for journal compliance.

Elsevier also announced the "publication ethics and malpractice statement requirements" in June 2015 [2], which includes 10 items: (1) editorial board, (2) authors and authors responsibilities, (3) peer-review process, (4) publication ethics including guidelines for retracting or correcting articles and publication of corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies, (5) copyright and access, (6) archiving, (7) ownership and management, (8) web site, (9) publishing schedule, and (10) name of journal. Those 10 items are already included in the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing [1].

The results are summarized in Table 1. All aspects of the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing were fulfilled by this journal.

Table 1.

Compliance of the Annals of Pediatric Endocrinology & Metabolism to the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (joint statement by COPE, DOAJ, WAME, and OASPA; http://doaj.org/bestpractice) [1]

No.	Item	Subitems	Corresponding URL, or content
1	Website	Aims & scope	https://e-apem.org/about/index.php
		Readership
		Authorship criteria	https://e-apem.org/authors/ethics.php
		ISSN	pISSN:2287-1012,eISSN:2287-1292
			https://e-apem.org/
2	Name of journal		https://e-apem.org/
3	Peer review process		https://e-apem.org/authors/authors.php
		Method of peer review	Double blind peer review, https://e-apem.org/authors/authors.php
4	Ownership and management		https://e-apem.org/about/index.php
5	Governing body	Editorial boards	https://e-apem.org/about/editorial.php
6	Editorial team/contact information		https://e-apem.org/about/editorial.php
			https://e-apem.org/about/contact.php
7	Copyright and licensing		https://e-apem.org/authors/copyright_transfer_agreement.php
			https://e-apem.org/about/open_access.php
8	Author fees		https://e-apem.org/authors/processing_charge.php
9	Process for identification of and dealing with allegations of research misconduct	Step to prevent research misconduct	https://e-apem.org/authors/ethics.php
		COPE’s guideline	https://e-apem.org/authors/ethics.php
10	Publication ethics	Authorship and contributor-ship	https://e-apem.org/authors/ethics.php
		Complaints and appeal	https://e-apem.org/authors/authors.php
		Conflicts of interest	https://e-apem.org/authors/ethics.php
		Ethical oversight (research ethics, informed consent, IRB)	https://e-apem.org/authors/ethics.php
		Intellectual property	https://e-apem.org/authors/copyright_transfer_agreement.php
		Postpublication discussions	via letters to the editor https://e-apem.org/authors/authors.php#1
11	Publishing schedule		Quarterly https://e-apem.org/about/index.php
12	Access		https://e-apem.org/about/open_access.php
13	Archiving		https://e-apem.org/authors/authors.php
14	Revenue sources		Society and authors’ fee, https://e-apem.org/authors/processing_charge.php
15	Advertising		https://e-apem.org/authors/advertising.php
16	Direct marketing		https://e-apem.org/authors/authors.php

COPE, Committee on Publication Ethics; DOAJ, Directory of Open Access Journals; WAME, World Association of Medical Editors; OASPA, Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association; IRB, institutional review board.

Institutional review board and informed consent

Aside from the above Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, informed consent and institutional review board (IRB) approval for human subjects or human-originating materials research is well described at the journal homepage and in the print version. These 2 components are mandatory for medical journals according to Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals [3]. The compliance of the journal was screened for issues published in 2017 (volume 22).

The number of original articles published in 2017 was 18. The results regarding IRB approval and receipt of informed consent are presented in Table 2. All subjects of original articles were human. Out of 18 articles, there were 15 chart reviews, 3 cross-sectional observational studies, 1 cohort study, and 1 online survey. Although informed consent was not described in IRB-approved studies, it was presumed to have been obtained because the need for informed consent is addressed prior to IRB approval. Usually, the need for informed consent was waived in retrospective chart review studies. If a study is not a clinical interventional study or does not include an identifiable photo of the subject, informed consent can be waived by the IRB. It would be better to confirm IRB approval and waiver of informed consent in all human subject chart review studies.

Table 2.

Institutional review board (IRB) approval, receipt of informed consent, and study design of the original articles published in the Annals of Pediatric Endocrinology & Metabolism in 2017

Study design	No. of articles	IRB approval	Informed consent[*]
Chart review	13	10	8
Cross-sectional study	3	3	1
Cohort study	1	1	0
Online survey	1	0	0
Total	18	14	9

Obtained or waived.

There is an article in the Annals of Pediatric Endocrinology & Metabolism that analyzed data from the 10th Korea Youth Risk Behavior web-based survey conducted in 2014 by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Korean Government [4]. IRB approval was waived for this survey according to the "enforcement rule of bioethics and safety act" available from: http://www.law.go.kr/LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=184877#0000, which excludes "a study conducted by the state or local governments directly or contractively to review and assess public welfare or service programs" from this need for approval of human subject research. The authorized statistical number of the Korean Government was 117058 (2005.09.30), which was provided by authors upon editor's request. The authors received response data only, without personal identification.

In conclusion, the Annals of Pediatric Endocrinology & Metabolism adheres to the international standards of research and publication according to the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing and the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals. I am happy to confirm the journal's ethical policy and strong enforcement by the editorial team.