Ethics Statement
BMC declaration guidance requires relevant manuscripts to state ethics approval and consent information, including the approving committee and reference number where appropriate. The requirement depends on the study and publisher policy rather than a universal template.
An ethics statement reports required ethics approval or waiver information for research involving people, human data/tissue, animals, or other regulated work. Use the target journal’s required declaration and identifiers.
Key details
Important caveats
Scope Boundary
What requires review, what identifiers must be reported, and where the declaration appears depend on jurisdiction, institution, discipline and publisher policy.
Further guidance
Content
Where applicable, identify the approving ethics committee and approval/reference information, and state consent-to-participate information as required.
Practical Application
For research that requires ethics oversight, report the approval or waiver required by the target journal or institution, identify the approving body, and include approval numbers or consent information when the submission rules call for them. Do not invent an ethics declaration for work that does not require one.
Purpose
Report the ethics approval, waiver, or not-applicable status required for the study.
Reader Check
Does the target publication require an ethics declaration for this study type, and have you supplied the exact approval, waiver, consent, or not-applicable information it asks for?
Worked Example
For a human-participant study, write the journal-required statement naming the ethics committee and approval identifier, then separately state the required consent information; if ethics approval was not required, use only the journal’s permitted not-applicable or waiver wording.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
- Preparing your manuscript — declarations guidance (BMC) (opens in a new tab)BMC / Springer Nature · BMC manuscript declarations guidance for ethics approval/consent to participate and consent for publication