Ethical Issues and Considerations
Internet-based research raises novel questions of ethics and human dignity (for example, see our article on Ethics in Social Media Research). If human subjects are involved, informed consent, protection of privacy, and other human rights are further criteria against which the manuscript will be judged. Papers that describe investigations on human subjects must include a statement that the study was approved by the institutional review board (IRB), in accordance with all applicable regulations, and that informed consent was obtained after the nature and possible consequences of the studies were explained. JMIR Publications is also encouraging articles devoted to the ethics of internet-based research. In addition, as mentioned in our Conflict of Interest article, we will ask authors to disclose any competing interests in relation to their work.