Research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki.

Authors must provide evidence of Research Ethics Committee approval of the research where relevant. Ensure the correct, full ethics committee name and reference number is included in the manuscript.

If the study was carried out using data from provincial healthcare facilities, or required active data collection through facility visits or staff interviews, approval should be sought from the relevant provincial authorities. For South African authors, please refer to the guidelines for submission to the National Health Research Database. Please refer to the National Department of Health’s guideline on Ethics in Health research: principles, processes and structures to ensure that the appropriate requirements for conducting research have been met, and that the Health Professions Council of South Africa’s General Ethical Guidelines for Health Researchers have been adhered to.

To all other authors, please follow the guidelines as per your country to ensure that your research is in accordance with your national requirements for conducting research.

Patient Consent

Information that would enable identification of individual patients should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) has given informed written consent for publication and distribution. We further recommend that the published article is disseminated not only to the involved researchers but also to the patients/participants from whom the data was drawn. Refer to Protection of Research Participants. The signed consent form should be submitted with the manuscript to enable verification by the editorial team.

Other individuals

Any individual who is identifiable in an image must provide written agreement that the image may be used in that context in the URHJ.