논문규정 : Research and Publication Ethics

The Society for Korean Medical Classics (hereafter 'Society') is an academic organization dedicated to the improvement of basic studies of Korean Medicine through research of Medical Classics literature.

The Society inherits the philosophy of the Huangdineijing(黃帝內經) which cautions against the Four Faults and Five Errors based on rational thinking, which enabled the establishment of ancient medicine, breaking away from shamanistic treatment.

It shares the ethical perspective of Sun Simiao who discussed the Da-Yi-Jing-Cheng(大醫精誠), which applies Great Benevolence and Compassion to not only patients but to non-human animals.

It rejects financial compensation and follows the compassionate attitude of Dong Feng who built a ginkgo grove through his medical services, and looks back on the benevolent and upright mind-set of Li Chan as in the Xiyi Guige(習醫規格).

It takes after the academic attitude of Heo Jun who documented and specified all references in the Donguibogam(東醫寶鑑), and follows the philosophy of Yi Jema who strived for longevity and preservation of the foundation of all people, transcending the exclusive work ethics of professional organizations.

Since the foundation of the Society, it has inherited the research findings on academic ethics by its members, adding to the general ethics of mankind ethical principles that are required of contemporary researchers, resulting in the establishment of the following ethics regulation on July 5, 2007. Following one revision since its establishment, a more recent revision took place on September 1, 2022 under the consensus of its members.

Article 1. Objective
The primary objective of the regulation lies in providing a foundation for decision making in research related ethical problems of the Society by establishing a set of ethical standards upon which research is carried out. Furthermore, the final objective of this regulation is to promote ethical treatment of research subjects, in addition to preventing actions of ethical violation and enhancing knowledge productivity.

Article 2. Application
① The regulation applies to members of the Society for Korean Medical Classics (the Society) and those involved (authors, reviewers, editors) in the publication of the Journal of Korean Medical Classics (the Journal).
② The regulation defines 'research activity' as academic conferences hosted or co-hosted by the Society; researches announced or published in the Journal published by the Society; and all other researches carried out in the name of the Society.
③ With the exception of specific regulations within other provisions in regards to research ethics or originality of a specific field of research, the regulation is applied to all research.

Article 3. Establishment and Revision of the Regulation
Establishment and revision of provision articles must be approved by the Board Members of the Society, and gains effect upon approval at the General Assembly.

Article 4. Authorship Qualifications
Authors must fulfill one of the following criteria for qualification.
① Research design :
    ㉠ Substantial contribution to the conception of the work
    ㉡ Substantial contribution to the planning of the work
    ㉢ Substantial contribution to the design of the work (including qualification method design, statistical method set-up)
② Research execution : Substantial contribution to research findings through research execution
③ Review of research findings :
    ㉠ Evaluation of research validity
    ㉡ Analysis of data acquired through research
④ Writer of article :
    ㉠ Writer of first draft
    ㉡ Writer of revised version
Individuals or organizations that have contributed to the work but do not meet the above-mentioned criteria are listed as contributors in 'Acknowledgements' with consent from the person(s) or organizations, or as clinical investigators or participating investigators within the article.

Article 5. Listing of Multiple Authors
The lead author's criteria are as following:
    ㉠ Suggested the main concept of the work or
    ㉡ Produced major findings through research execution or
    ㉢ Wrote the first draft of the article.
If more than two people fulfill these requirements, the lead author should be decided unanimously based on his/her contribution to each of the aforementioned criteria.

The corresponding author takes overall responsibility of the article and is responsible for approving the final draft of the work, and for communicating with co-authors and readers.
Co-authors are those other than the lead and corresponding authors. The order of authors should be listed fairly based on each person's contribution to the work, regardless of his/her relative position.

Article 6. Role and Responsibility of Researchers
Researchers must execute their work freely based on the freedom of research while complying to the following items.
① Researchers must treat both human and non-human research subjects ethically.
② Researchers must protect personal information and privacy of the research participants.
③ Researchers must carry out their work with honesty and transparency based on facts.
④ When findings are distributed to society, researchers must abide by their academic integrity at all times.
⑤ Researchers must publically announce new findings to contribute to academic advancement.
⑥ Researchers must respect and acknowledge other researchers' work through appropriate citation of their work. Intellectual property rights such as patents and copyright must be respected.
⑦ Researchers must abide by ethical responsibilities in the process of signing the research contract, securing research funds, and budget execution of their research.
⑧ Researchers must not be influenced by the research funding institution, and must state any conflict of interests related to the research and its findings clearly.
⑨ When presenting the findings, researchers must state their affiliation and position (author information) clearly to secure credibility.
⑩ Researchers must continuously participate in research ethics education.

Article 7. Participation of Affiliated Persons
Should persons affiliated with the researcher, such as minors (under the age of 19), family members (those closer than 4 chon寸 relationships such as partner or children) participate in the research or plan to co-present an article, compliance to the following is mandatory.
① Researchers must notify their affiliated institution or co-researchers of plans of the affiliated persons's participation, prior to the beginning of research.
② Researchers must have the affiliated person(s) document and archive any information, documents or insights learned from the research in the form of a research progress notebook.
③ Researchers must notify the Society of affiliated person(s)'s participation in the research when submitting the article.
④ Researchers must state without error the affiliated institution and position of not only themselves but also the affiliated person(s) when presenting research findings.

Article 8. Respecting Personhood of the Author(s)
The reviewer must respect the personhood of the author(s) as professional intellectuals. Opinions of the reviewer must be stated along with detailed explanation of why certain parts of the article need modification in the Evaluation Report. Language should be respectful, and any expressions of abasement or disrespect of the author must be avoided.

Article 9. Compliance with the Review Policy
The reviewer must comply to the review policy established by the editorial board.

Article 10. Review Objectivity
The reviewer must evaluate the manuscript for its intellectual content according to one's scholarly conscience and objective standards without regard for personal intellectual belief or personal relationship with the author. In cases where the reviewer feels that it is inappropriate or difficult to objectively evaluate a manuscript, (s)he must notify the editorial board without delay.

Article 11. No Multiple or Concurrent Publications
In cases where a submitted manuscript has already been published in another academic journal or is going through concurrent evaluation, the reviewer must notify the editorial board.

Article 12. Confidentiality
Information on the author or content of the article obtained in the process of evaluation must not be publicized or used for personal cause. Contents of submitted articles under evaluation must not be quoted in other research articles prior to journal publication.

Article 13. Rights and Responsibilities
While members of the editorial board hold rights to determine whether a submitted article is accepted for publication, they must respect the independence of the author(s).

Article 14. Compliance of Editorial Policies
Editorial board members must comply to editorial principles determined by the Society's editorial and review policies. They must perform their duties without prejudice or regard for personal relationships, so as not to evoke any fairness disputes related to editorial matters among members.

Article 15. Confidentiality of Editorials
Editors must not disclose any information on authors acquired in the process of editing. Contents of the article must be kept confidential until its publication.

Article 16. Confirmation of Violation and Duty to Report
Should claims regarding research ethics violation arise while the editorial board is carrying out its duties, the chief editor must confirm and suspend publication of the manuscript in question until the claim is verified. Contents of the manuscript's research ethics violation must be submitted to the research ethics committee in written form.

Article 17. Author's Responsibility Regarding Conflict of Interests
In cases the author has financial conflict of interests that could potentially influence the research upon submission of the manuscript, it should be declared. Contents of financial support that could influence the research, financial or personal relationships between the supporting party and the author must be stated within the manuscript.

Article 18. Reviewer's Responsibility Regarding Conflict of Interests
In cases the reviewer has conflict of interests that could potentially influence the reviewer's evaluation of the manuscript, it should be declared to the editor without exception. Any conflict of interests regarding the manuscript should prevent the reviewer from participating in the evaluation process.

Article 19. Editor's Responsibility Regarding Conflict of Interests
Editors who make the final decision to publish an article must not have any personal or financial relationship with the author in regards to the research. All financial support and conflict of interests that should be known to the readers must be stated within the published article. Editors must not use any information acquired in the process of work related to the article for personal purposes.

Article 20. Duty to Secure Prior Permission
In order to proceed with research using human subjects or human specimen, prior permission from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of related institutions must be secured according to protocol to protect the rights, safety and welfare of the research subjects.

Article 21. Fundamental Principles
① Clinical research must comply to the ethics protocol, guideline for good clinical practice and related regulations based on the Declaration of Helsinki (1983 edition).
② The researcher must respect the subject's dignity as a human being, protect the subject's personal information, and take all possible preventive measures to minimize negative influence the research might have on the physical, mental dignity and personhood of the research subject.
③ Voluntary consent of the subject must be acquired. Research must be carried out without any unnecessary physical or mental pain or damage. The subject is free to discontinue the trial during its process.
④ The researcher must respect the subject's rights to make his/her own decision without any negative influence or coercion from the researcher.
⑤ The researcher must maximize the subject's benefit and minimize risk.
⑥ The researcher has a duty to fairly distribute benefit and risk without prejudice towards specific individuals or groups in regards to ethnicity, gender, mental condition, etc.
⑦ Researches in which subjects are among pregnant women, human fetuses, newborns, children, prisoners, etc. must take additional protective measures.

Article 22. Duty to Acquire Informed Consent
Researches using human bodies must fully inform the subjects of possible side effects and acquire consent regarding research participation according to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocol.

Article 23. Contents of Informed Consent and its Documentation
① The chief researcher must receive consent from all subjects participating in the clinical trials, after fully explaining the following. In cases where the subject cannot consent due to cognitive impairment or inability to express oneself, a legal proxy such as partner or person with parental rights could consent on behalf of the subject. In such case, each of the following must be thoroughly explained to the subject or the proxy in a language that the subject or proxy can understand.
   1. The fact that the clinical trial in question will be carried out for the purpose of research
   2. Estimated participation period and number of research subjects
   3. Purpose, content, and methods of the clinical research
   4. Examinations and procedures that subjects may undertake
   5. Estimated efficacy, effects, side-effects and risk
   6. Safety measures of the clinical research
   7. In cases the subject is a patient, other means of treatment support and their contents regarding the patient's illness
   8. That the subject will not be subject to any disadvantages should they disagree to research participation
   9. That the subject can always withdraw their participation by free will despite initial agreement
   10. Confidentiality of personal information
   11. Other necessary items for subject protection
   12. Measures the subject is required to follow
② The consent form must be signed by the chief researcher, subject(s), or their proxy by hand. Copies of the consent form and other documents given to the subject(s) must be provided to the subject(s).

Article 24. Confirmation of Free Will
Researchers must confirm that the subject's consent wasn't given under pressure or due to a subordinate nature of the relationship with the researcher. If there is such possibility, informed consent must be acquired by a peer who is familiar with the research but unaffiliated to it or someone who is completely unaffiliated to the research.

Article 25. Measures on Subject(s) of Contrast-Control Study
As with any other research, subjects of contrast-control studies must be fully informed of the nature of the research, its expected outcome, risk, and the possibility of receiving placebo(or other means of fake treatment) medicine. It must be confirmed that the subject has fully understood the meaning of the given explanation.

Article 26. Protection of Personal Information
In order to protect personal information of the subject(s), the researcher must comply to the following.
① The researcher must prepare measures to protect personal information and data of the subject from leaking without the subject's consent.
② The researcher must inform the subject about the researcher's legal and other limitations on confidentiality, and possible outcomes of breach of confidentiality.

Article 27. Obligation to Acquire Prior Permission
In order to proceed with research ('animal research') involving live animals ('experimental animal'), one must acquire prior permission from the ethics board of animal research of the relevant institution following due process for the rights, safety, and welfare of the experimental animal.

Article 28. General Instructions
① The researcher must follow the rules and regulations regarding the transportation, protection and usage of the experimental animal.
② The design and practice of the research must be in accordance with public health of human or non-human animals, progress of knowledge, and the common good of society.
③ The researcher must minimize the usage of appropriate, good quality animals necessary for valid outcome, and consider ways of substituting the animal.
④ When executing animal related research, prior ethical evaluation is necessary.
⑤ Animal related research must consider possibilities of deformation or substitution of the animal before executing the research.

Article 29. Principles of Experimental Animal Welfare
The researcher must comply with the following principles.
① Substitution: Use non-animal models, or animals with relatively simple nervous system construction.
② Minimization: Apply various methods to minimize the number of experimental animals.
③ Improvement: Apply methods that remove or minimize pain.

Article 30. Measures to Minimize Pain
In order to minimize the pain, suffering, and discomfort of the experimental animal, an appropriate amount of stabilizer or analgesic must be used. In cases where pain is unrelievable, or chronic and severe disease is to be expected, the experimental animal must be killed painlessly.

Article 31. Protection of the Rights of Experimental Animals
The researcher must protect the rights of the experimental animal. The experimental animal must be raised and managed appropriately, and prior permission must be issued when applying toxic substances. Researches must be managed so that the animal does not suffer unintended harm.

Article 32. Disposal of the Animal upon Research Completion
Upon completion of research, the animal used in research must be handed over to an institution where the according species can live out its natural lifespan. In cases where this is impossible and the animal must inevitably be killed, euthanasia must be administered.

Article 33. Safety Management
① Ownership of technology and qualification of the person in charge of the protection and management of the experimental animal during the process of the research must be verified.
② The person in charge of the experimental animal must ensure that the animal does not harm people or other animals.
③ Caution must be taken so that the researcher is not harmed by the experimental animal in the process of research. Researchers inexperienced in managing experimental animals must undertake adequate training before participating in the research.
④ The dead body of the animal must be handled and stored according to set rules upon completion of the research.

Article 34. Reflection of the Gender Innovation Policy
Manuscripts published in this journal must adhere to the gender innovation policy recommended guideline. (Korea Center for Gendered Innovations for Science and Technology Research GISTeR, Guideline for Considering Sex and Gender Variables in Biomedicine Research, 2018)
① The manuscript must distinguish the research subject's biological sex and social gender.
② The manuscript must report the sex of the animal or cell used in the research. For human participants, both sex and gender must be reported along with methods by which they were determined.
③ In cases where the research subject is consisted of only one sex or gender, the author must give a logical explanation, with the exception of studies where further explanation is not required (ie. prostate disease research).

Article 35. Race and Ethnicity
In researches where race and ethnicity are distinguished, the author must state the method by which the race or ethnic group was determined, and its necessity within the research.

Article 36. Research Misconduct
Research misconduct refers to the following actions during the proposal, execution, outcome report and presentation of the research development project.
① "Counterfeit" refers to the action of falsely creating, documenting, or presenting non-existing original document, research document, or research outcome.
② "Falsification" refers to intentionally manipulating research material, equipment, procedure, or arbitrarily modifying or deleting original documents or research documents to manipulate the contents or outcome of research.
③ "Plagiarism" refers to the following cases, where an original idea or creation of another person that is not general knowledge is used without appropriate indication of source, making others falsely believe that it is the author's original creation.
   가. Using a part of or the entire content of another person's research without indicating its source.
   나. Using another person's work after partially modifying words or sentence structure without indication of its source.
   다. Using another person's original idea without indication of its source
   라. Translating and using another person's work without indication of its source
④ “Illegitimate authorship" refers to the following items where a person who made contributions to the research content or outcome has been denied authorship without legitimate reasons, or a person who has not contributed to the research has been wrongfully acknowledged and given authorship as special privilege.
   가. Authorship is given without any contribution to the contents and/or results of the research.
   나. Authorship is denied despite contribution to the contents and/or results of the research.
   다. A student's dissertation is presented or published under only the doctoral advisor's name.
⑤ "Illegitimate redundant publication" refers to when one's research that has been previously published or its research findings are essentially identical to previous work is used to acquire illegitimate benefits such acknowledgement as achievement or funding, without proper mentioning of its sources.
⑥ "Sabotage of research misconduct investigation" refers to intentional interruption of investigations on fraudulent acts in one's or another's research, or harmful actions towards its informants.
⑦ Other actions that exceed generally acceptable behavior within academia could be defined as research misconduct.

Article 37. Bioethics Violation
Bioethics violation refer to the following actions in each item.
① Any actions that have violated or have the potential to violate basic human rights in researches that use human-derived specimen or human subjects. Acts of violation subject to evaluation by the research ethics committee are defined as actions that fail to protect human subjects due to failure to comply with the clinical experiment protocol. Other violations follow those which are determined by the Bioethics and Safety Act (Act #17783).
② Any actions that have violated or have the potential to violate basic non-human animal rights in researches that use non-human animals. Acts of violation subject to evaluation by the research ethics committee are defined as actions that fail to protect non-human animal subjects due to failure to comply with the non-human animal experiment protocol. Other violations follow those which are determined by the Laboratory Animal Act (Act #15944), Animal Protection Law (Act #16977) and its lower statutes.

Article 38. Objective
This article defines the organization and management of the research ethics committee (hereafter 'Committee') of the Society.

Article 39. Authority
The Committee holds the following authority.
① Establishment and revision of the research ethics code.
② Deliberation and decision of research ethics violation cases and disciplinary actions.
③ Deliberation of other issues related to research ethics of the Society.

Article 40. Organization and Tenure
The Committee is organized as following.
① The Committee is constituted by five members including the Chair.
② The Chair is appointed by the president of the Society. The academic director and editor-in-chief are official positions.
③ Members are recommended by the Chair, and appointed by the president.
④ A Committee member's term lasts three years, and could go up to two consecutive terms. Other items follow the Society's articles of association.
⑤ The editor-in-chief acts as assistant administrator of the Committee.

Article 41. Obligations
The Committee holds the following obligations.
① The Committee must maintain confidentiality on discussed items (including personal information of informant, person under investigation, investigator, witness, counsel, etc.).
② The Committee must finalize ethics violation deliberation prior to publication of the next issue of the journal.
③ The Committee must archive contents of all meetings in the form of minutes, and report the results to the board.

Article 42. Meetings
The assembly of the board meeting and its decision making process goes as following.
① Board meetings are assembled by the Chair or by demands of more than one thirds of the registered members.
② The board's decision is made by approval of more than half of the registered members. However, in cases of member(s)'s absence due to unavoidable reasons, the Chair could set a separate process to verify the member(s)'s opinion.
③ Decisions made by the Committee must go through the Board's deliberation process in order to have effect.

Article 43. Appointment of an Outside Specialist
When in need of specialized knowledge on research ethics deliberation, an outside specialist could be appointed as a special council member.

Article 44. Reporting Violation
Members of the Society, those affiliated with the publication of the journal, and researchers could report instances wherein it is certain that there has been violation of the research ethics code to the Committee. In such cases, one must give a named written report to the Committee, in which the contents of the research ethics violation is explained.

Article 45. Protection of Personal Information of the Informant and Person Under Investigation
All persons affiliated with the research ethics issue in question must not leak any personal information of the informant or person under investigation. However, should the reported content be determined as false, the informant forfeits the rights for protection.

Article 46. Obligation to Notify
The Society must notify the informant and the person under investigation of the reported research ethics violation.

Article 47. Responsibilities of the Person Under Investigation
Member(s) of the Society who has been reported for research ethics violation, or person(s) affiliated with the publication of the journal must cooperate with the Committee's investigation.

Article 48. Outline for Violation Verification
The Committee is free to decide the details of the verification process and method within the contents of the Guideline for Securing Research Ethics (Ministry of Education, Instruction #263).

Article 49. Promise of Equal Opportunity for Explanation
Both informant and person under investigation of the research ethics violation are promised equal opportunity to make a statement of opinion, appeal, or defense.

Article 50. Recusal Request of Committee Members
The informant or person under investigation could request a recusal for certain committee members from whom fair consideration and decision is difficult to be expected. Reasons must be disclosed. The validity of the recusal request will be considered and decided by the Committee.

Article 51. Applying for Re-investigation
Should the informant or person under investigation decide to appeal to the Committee's decision, an application for re-investigation could be made in paper within 14 days of receiving the initial notification of the Committee's decision.

Article 52. Measures for Rehabilitating Reputation
Once claims for research ethics violation are proven null, the Society must take appropriate measures to rehabilitate the reputation of the person under investigation.

Article 53. Effects of Disciplinary Action
Disciplinary actions of the Committee are effective upon the board's decision and announcement.

Article 54. List of Disciplinary Actions
The following disciplinary actions are imposed according to the extent of research ethics violation.
① Warning: Warnings are given for compliance to research ethics.
② Denial of publication: Publication of research is denied (in cases violation was aware ahead of publication timeline)
③ Removal of paper: The paper in question is removed from the list of published works of the Society.
④ Submission restriction: All authors are restricted from submitting their work to the journal from 1 to 3 years, depending on the extent of violation.
⑤ Notification of violation: Affiliated institution(s) of the author and the National Research Foundation of Korea will be notified of the violation.
⑥ Suspension: Membership of the Society is suspended.