Confidentiality

Notes for Authors- ICMJE

Confidentiality

International Committee of Medical Journal Editors

Manuscripts should be reviewed with due respect for authors’ confidentiality. In submitting their manuscripts for review, authors entrust editors with the results of their scientific work and creative effort, on which their reputation and career may depend. Authors’ rights may be violated by disclosure of the confidential details of the review of their manuscript. Reviewers also have rights to confidentiality, which must be respected by the editor. Confidentiality may have to be breached if dishonesty or fraud is alleged but otherwise must be honored.

Editors should not disclose information about manuscripts (including their receipt, their content, their status in the reviewing process, their criticism by reviewers, or their ultimate fate) to anyone other than the authors themselves and reviewers.

Editors should make clear to their reviewers that manuscripts sent for review are privileged communications and are the private property of the authors. Therefore, reviewers and members of the editorial staff should respect the authors’ rights by not publicly discussing the authors’ work or appropriating their ideas before the manuscript is published. Reviewers should not be allowed to make copies of the manuscript for their files and should be prohibited from sharing it with others, except with the permission of the editor. Editors should not keep copies of rejected manuscripts.

Opinions differ on whether reviewers should remain anonymous. Some editors require their reviewers to sign the comments returned to authors, but most either request that reviewers’ comments not be signed or leave the choice to the reviewer. When comments are not signed the reviewers’ identity must not be revealed to the author or anyone else.

Some journals publish reviewers’ comments with the manuscript. No such procedure should be adopted without the consent of the authors and reviewers. However, reviewers’ comments may be sent to other reviewers of the same manuscript, and reviewers may be notified of the editor’s decision.

Inquires and comments should be sent to The Editor at the São Paulo Medical Journal (Revista Paulista de Medicina) secretariat office, Associação Paulista de Medicina, Rua Brigadeiro Luís Antônio, 278, 7th floor. 01318-901

Phone [phone], extension 210; fax:[phone]; e-mail: [e-mail]

The notes in this statement are excerpts from: International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Jornals. Ann Intern Med 1997 Jan 1;126(1):36-47. Available on website: http://www.acponline.org/journals/01jan97/unifregr.htm. This article includes: issues to consider before submitting a manuscript, requirements for submission of manuscripts, sending the manuscript to the journal, and separate declarations.

Correction:

The Letter to the Edittor published in the January 1999 issue, 117(1):42-3, with the heading "Should there be a recommended limit to the number of references in a scientific article?", has two authors: Jaime Anger and José Vicente Barbosa Corrêa.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  04 Nov 1999
• Date of issue
  July 1999