For research involving living human participants, informed consent to participate must be obtained from the participants or, where applicable, from their legally authorised representatives. In the case of minors, consent must be obtained from a parent or legal guardian, together with the minor’s assent where appropriate. A statement regarding informed consent must be included in the manuscript. Where consent has been waived by an authorised ethics committee or is not required under applicable law, the authors must explain this and provide relevant documentation upon request.
Studies involving persons unable to provide fully informed consent must comply with applicable legal and ethical requirements and must have appropriate ethics approval. Research involving deceased persons, post-mortem material or information obtained during autopsy must comply with applicable law, professional confidentiality, ethics requirements and any necessary institutional authorisation.
Written consent for publication must be obtained when a living person may be identifiable from the text, images, pedigrees or other published material. In the case of a deceased identifiable person, consent should be obtained from an authorised representative or appropriate next of kin where required by applicable law and ethical standards. Exceptional publication without such consent may be considered only where it is legally permissible, ethically justified and supported by a compelling scientific or public interest.
Before consent to publication is granted, the identifiable person or authorised representative must be provided with the manuscript to be published. It is not sufficient to provide merely a general description of the case report. Authors must clearly explain whether the material will be available online as well as in print and must make the person aware of the global and potentially permanent reach of digital publication.
If there is any doubt as to whether anonymity can be fully preserved, written consent for publication must be obtained. Simply masking the eye region in a photograph is not sufficient to protect anonymity. Non-essential identifying details must be omitted from the text and images. Any alteration or removal of identifying details must not distort the scientific meaning of the material.