Ethics in Research & Publishing

All medical studies involving human participants should follow ethical principles detailed in The World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects.

Research conducted on animals should adhere to the International Association for Veterinary Editors’ “Consensus Author Guidelines for Animal Use.”

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All participants must provide informed consent as detailed in the Declaration of Helsinki and ICMJE’s “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.” When applicable, a statement should be included in the manuscript noting how informed consent was obtained prior to experimentation with human subjects.

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Investigators are required to obtain a formal review and approval, or waiver, by an appropriate ethics committee or institutional review board for all research on human participants or animals. The investigators must follow the Declaration of Helsinki and the ICMJE’s “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals” if an ethics committee or institutional review board is unavailable. Institutional Review Board approval is not required for case reports, provided case reports do not meet the federal definition of human subjects research as a “systematic investigation, including research development, testing and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge.” Case reports describing three or more clinical cases will be taken to qualify as human subjects research. A statement should be included in the manuscript indicating the name of the committee or board from which approval was obtained, or indicating that IRB approval was not required. If approval was required, authors must have documentation of approval available upon request by editors or reviewers. Regardless of whether IRB approval was required, all research reported in the manuscript is expected to adhere to the guidelines detailed in this Guide for Authors.

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Authors are strictly prohibited from simultaneously submitting their manuscript to other journals. We pledge to review all submissions promptly so that authors may submit their manuscript to other journals in the event of rejection.

Authors are strictly prohibited from submitting previously published work written by themselves or others. Likewise, authors are prohibited from submitting articles that include previously published data or other content, without appropriate reference. Submitted content may be assessed using originality detection software. Authors may, however, submit articles containing data or content previously reported in an abstract, conference proceeding, presentation, or unpublished academic thesis or paper. In such cases, authors must appropriately reference the original source and have the supporting documentation available upon request of an editor or reviewer.

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Submission of a manuscript implies that all listed authors meet all four requirements detailed in the ICMJE Recommendations, when applicable:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work.
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
3. Final approval of the version to be published.
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

All individuals who meet the aforementioned criteria should be listed as authors. Individuals who meet some, but not all, of the criteria should be noted in the “Acknowledgments” section after written consent is obtained from the contributing individual. All authors must be able to detail the specific contributors of co-authors upon request of an editor or reviewer. It is the responsibility of the authors and appropriate research institutions, not JCEMS, to appropriately assign authorship.

The corresponding author is responsible for communications with JCEMS Editors throughout the submission, review, and post-approval process. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that manuscripts are submitted in accordance with the guidelines detailed in this document. The corresponding author must be clearly noted on the manuscript cover page.

Requests to add, remove, or rearrange the order of one or more authors in the authorship list after submission must be made in writing. The corresponding author must submit an electronic or print letter detailing the reason(s) for the requested change. All authors – including the author to be added or removed – must submit an electronic or print letter of agreement with the change.

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Unpublished data or other information obtained through personal communication may be included in articles, provided the individual and means of communication (written or oral) are identified in the manuscript text. An example might read: “All patient charts are reviewed weekly by the student QI/QA officer prior to review by the agency’s medical director (oral communication with Medical Director John Smith, MD).” Authors must include a signed statement from the source(s) of personal communication indicating that individual(s) consent to being identified in the article.

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JCEMS is committed to freely disseminating research and other scholarly work to the collegiate EMS community and the public. All JCEMS articles and other content are therefore published open access at CollegeEMS.com, which means that all content is freely available to the public. Open access publication ensures that content reaches the widest audience and has the greatest impact. Authors and readers can access, share, print, and distribute JCEMS content for free, provided the authors and JCEMS are appropriately cited.

We have waived our article processing charge (APC) to remove all barriers for JCEMS authors to publish open access. Unlike most open access journals, JCEMS does not charge authors to submit or publish articles.

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