Human research review committee requirements in medical journals

Purpose: Independent ethical review committees safe-guard participants in human research. The purpose of this study was to describe the current ethical guidelines for hu-man research requirements in the Instructions to Authors of the English language medical journals previously studied in 1995. Methods: The instructions to authors of English language medicine journals from the Abridged Index Medicus were searched for any policies regarding guidance on the ethical treatment of human subjects in research. Results: More medical journals require independent ethics committee approval of human research now [84/101 (83%)] than 10 years ago [48/102 (47%) (P<0.001)], and most journals continue to require that this disclosure appea