Policy on Ethical Oversight and Compliance

Global Virology Reports (GVR) is committed to the highest ethical standards in the publication of scientific research. We require that all research involving humans, animals, biological materials, or clinical trials be conducted in strict accordance with relevant international, national, and institutional guidelines. Manuscripts must provide explicit statements of compliance, and evidence of approval may be requested by the editorial office at any stage of the publication process.

Human Subjects Research

·       Ethical Approval: Research involving human participants, their data, or their tissue must have been reviewed and approved by an appropriate Institutional Review Board (IRB) or independent ethics committee. The manuscript must include a statement within the "Methods" section identifying the approving committee(s) and the approval number.

·       Informed Consent: For all interventional and most observational studies, a clear statement must confirm that informed consent was obtained from all participants or their legal guardians. For case studies, consent for publication is typically required.

·       Privacy and Confidentiality: Authors must protect patient anonymity and confidentiality. Identifying details (e.g., names, initials, specific dates, hospital numbers) must be omitted from the text and images.

Animal Research

·       Ethical Compliance: Studies involving vertebrate animals or higher-order invertebrates must be conducted in accordance with institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals (e.g., NIH Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, EU Directive 2010/63/EU).

·       Approval Statement: The manuscript must include a statement in the "Methods" section specifying the name of the institutional ethics committee that approved the study and the associated protocol number.

Biosafety and Biosecurity

·       Compliance: Research involving pathogenic agents, recombinant DNA, or potentially dual-use research of concern must comply with all applicable institutional, national, and international biosafety and biosecurity regulations.

·       Statement of Compliance: A statement confirming compliance must be included in the manuscript. Authors are responsible for declaring any relevant permits or institutional approvals for handling regulated pathogens.

Clinical Trials

·       Registration: GVR requires the prospective registration of all clinical trials in a publicly accessible registry (e.g., ClinicalTrials.gov, ISRCTN Registry) that is a primary register of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform.

·       Reporting: Clinical trials must be reported according to recognized CONSORT guidelines, and the trial registration number and date must be provided in the abstract and methods section.

Enforcement
Manuscripts that fail to include these required statements or that present research conducted without proper ethical oversight will be rejected. In cases where ethical concerns are raised after publication, the matter will be investigated according to COPE guidelines, which may lead to the publication of a correction or the retraction of the article.