Informed Consent and Participant Rights

General Principles

All research involving human participants must respect their personal rights, including control over personal data, interview responses, photographs, and identifiable biological information. Authors must ensure that participants are informed about how their data will be used and provide written consent wherever applicable, especially in studies involving vulnerable groups (e.g., minors, patients, refugees) or sensitive content.

Identifiable information such as names, dates of birth, biometric details, or distinguishing characteristics should not be published unless it is essential to the study and explicit, written consent has been obtained from the participant or their legal representative. Informed consent should be obtained when there is any uncertainty about participant anonymity.

Note: Masking the eye region alone in images does not ensure anonymity.

Exceptions

Consent is not required if:

• The data/images are fully anonymized and do not reveal identity.
• The images are non-identifiable (e.g., X-rays, pathology slides, brain scans) unless there is a concern about potential identification.
• Reusing images from previous publications authors must ensure proper attribution and assume prior consent was obtained.

Use of Existing Data and Biological Materials

Even when using previously collected biological samples or data (including from deceased individuals), informed consent must have been obtained from the subject or their legal representative. Confidentiality and ethical considerations should be upheld, and biobank/repository policies should be consulted for consent provisions.

Data Privacy and Confidentiality

Authors must inform participants about:

• What personal or sensitive data will be collected.
• How it will be processed and for what purpose.
• Whether it will be shared, published, or reused in the future.

Where applicable, broad consent (e.g., from biobanks or repositories) may suffice, provided it aligns with ethics committee guidelines.

Consent to Participate

All studies involving human subjects must obtain freely given, informed consent from participants or from a legal guardian (e.g., for children under 16). A statement confirming this must be included in the manuscript.

For studies involving organ or tissue transplantation, authors must confirm that no organs/tissues were sourced from prisoners and must specify the institutions through which they were obtained.

Studies involving vulnerable or potentially coerced participants will undergo heightened editorial scrutiny.

Consent to Publish

Participation consent does not automatically include consent to publish. Authors must obtain separate written consent to publish any identifiable participant data, particularly in case studies or personal narratives.

Summary of Requirements

Authors must include a clear “Declarations” section before the reference list, summarizing:

• Consent to Participate
• Consent to Publish
• Ethics Approval
• Funding
• Conflicts of Interest
• Data Availability
• Author Contributions

If any of these items do not apply, please include the heading and state “Not applicable.”

Sample Consent to Participate Statements

• Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
• Written informed consent was obtained from legal guardians.
• The patient has consented to the submission of the case report to the journal.

Sample Consent to Publish Statements

• Participants provided written consent for the publication of their data and photographs.
• The authors affirm that human research participants gave informed consent for publication of the images in Figures 2a and 2b.
• Additional consent was obtained from participants for whom identifying information appears in this article.

Non-Compliance

If authors fail to obtain informed consent for identifiable material, NJET reserves the right to:

• Remove the relevant content from publication.
• Retract the article, replacing it with a notice explaining the reason for removal.