Table 1. Detailed information about the statements on ethics review in the authors instructions or during the submission process.

Ethics review	Wording examples according to the ratings	All journals	Top-10 journals
		N = 123	N = 10
Recommended or Required ethics review		66 (54%)	5 (50%)
Specified their requirements concerning the statement		27 (22%)	3 (30%)
Publication of theinformation in themanuscript	“For human or animal experimental investigations, appropriate institutional review board approval is required and should be described in the Methods section of the paper.”	17 (14%)	2 (20%)
Required to name theREC	“Manuscripts that involve investigations on human participants must give the name of the ethics committee that approved the study.”	12 (10%)	2 (20%)
Required originaldocuments or evidence	“An author must make available all requisite formal and documented ethical approval from an appropriate research ethics committee using humans or human tissue.”	7 (6%)	0 (0%)
Required explanation,if there was no REC approval	“State whether institutional review board approval was obtained for the investigation; if it was not, provide an explanation.”	3 (2%)	0 (0%)
Required to reportexemption or requirements from theREC	“If a study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the Methods section.”	2 (2%)	0 (0%)
Not Recommended or Required ethics review		57 (46%)	5 (50%)