The ethical principles of the medical profession and of other professions working for athletes, patients and people and the ethical principles of research, medical practice and sport, especially the general rules for research in sports, will be accepted.

The German Journal of Sports Medicine is following the scientific guidelines for safeguarding good research practice of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation, www.dfg.de/en/). The guidelines can be found here: https://www.dfg.de/download/pdf/foerderung/rechtliche_rahmenbedingungen/gute_wissenschaftliche_praxis/kodex_gwp_en.pdf

The Journal supports the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and is listed as a journal that follows the CMJE's Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.

In all studies involving humans or animals, the involvement of the responsible ethics committee and other competent authorities is mandatory. Every manuscript should include a statement about the outcome of the ethics evaluation and decisons of other competent authorities including reference number.

Equity, diversity, and inclusion

The Journal is committed to the values of equity, diversity, and inclusion in research and publications. Such priciples should be observed in study design, data collection and interpretation and constraints on generalizability should be expressed when relevant.  

Registration of clinical studies in a WHO-accredited registry

The World Medical Association writes in the Declaration of Helsinki, in which ethical principles on medical research involving human subjects were written down as a globally accepted guideline for clinical research:

"Every research project involving human subjects shall be registered in a publicly accessible database before the first subject is recruited. "

A prerequiste for clinical studies is the registration in a registry that supports the WHO handled International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP).

The German Clinical Trials Registry (Deutsches Register Klinischer Studien, DRKS) is the WHO-recognised primary registry for Germany. It is responsible for the registration of all patient-oriented clinical trials conducted in Germany.

Conflict of Interest

The authors must provide a statement of disclosure of conflict of interest, e.g. regarding financial relationship or payment but also other conflicts of interests in connection with publication in the German Journal of Sports Medicine according to ICMJE recommendations

In the submission system “Editorial Manager”, the corresponding author signs before submission a digital form for himself and all corresponding authors, that these principles are accepted.

Editors, editorial staff and reviewers are mandated to disclose possible conflicts of interest in handling submissions. In case of uncertainty, other editors, reviewers and staff should be involved.

Anti-Doping

Ethical principles in includes particularly the principles for a doping-free sport according to the current respective versions the World-Anti-Doping-Code and other regulations and guidelines of the World-Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the German Olympic Association for Sports (DOSB) and national laws. All authors assure that they will take care of these principles and accept them. This does not exclude scientific discussions of such guidelines and rules.

Rights and Respectives for Human and Animals

Participation by individuals capable of giving informed consent as subjects in medical research must be voluntary. Although it may be appropriate to consult family members or community leaders, no individual capable of giving informed consent may be enrolled in a research study unless he or she freely agrees.

In medical research involving human subjects capable of giving informed consent, each potential subject must be adequately informed about the aims, methods, sources of funding, any possible conflicts of interest, institutional affiliations of the researcher, the anticipated benefits and potential risks of the study and the discomfort it may entail, post-study provisions and any other relevant aspects of the study. The potential subject must be informed about the right to refuse to participate in the study or to withdraw consent to participate at any time without reprisal. Special attention should be given to the specific information needs of individual potential subjects as well as to the methods used to deliver the information.

After ensuring that the potential subject has understood the information, the physician or another appropriately qualified individual must then seek the potential subject’s freely-given informed consent, preferably in writing. If the consent cannot be expressed in writing, the non-written consent must be formally documented and witnessed. All medical research subjects should be given the option of being informed about the general outcome and results of the study. Similarly, the ethical principles for the treatment of experimental animals must also be observed as established in the relevant laws.

Download PDF "Ethical principles"