Research involving animals

The corresponding author must confirm that all procedures were properly followed when reporting experiments involving live vertebrates and/or higher invertebrates in our journal. Research involving vertebrates or regulated invertebrates must comply with institutional, national, and international guidelines, and, whenever feasible, ethics committee approval should be obtained.

The manuscript must include a statement of compliance with relevant guidelines (e.g., the revised Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 in the UK, Directive 2010/63/EU in Europe) and/or ethical approval, including the name of the ethics committee and reference number. If an exemption was granted, the ethics committee granting the exemption and the reason for it should be explicitly mentioned in the manuscript. Our journal reserves the right to reject manuscripts that do not adhere to generally accepted standards of animal research, particularly if the protocols conflict with these norms. In rare cases, editors may contact the ethics committee for clarification.

It should be noted that an ethics committee cannot overrule previously published work or decide not to consider manuscripts describing anesthesia or euthanasia methods used in prior studies.

For experimental studies involving client-owned animals, informed consent must be documented, and animals must receive high-quality veterinary care in accordance with best practices.