Writing & StyleStyle guide

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.

Quick answer

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

Core IssueBMC declaration guidance requires relevant manuscripts to state ethics approval and consent information, including the approving committee and reference number where appropriate
Registerscholarly, professional, or publisher-controlled writing

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.

Purpose

Report the ethics approval, waiver, or not-applicable status required for the study.

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.

  1. 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

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