Vaidyaratnam Journal of Ayurvedic Medicine

Declaration of Generative AI Use

Authors must disclose the use of generative AI or AI-assisted tools in the preparation of the manuscript at the time of submission. Such tools may be used to support tasks such as language improvement or content organization but must not replace human judgment or scholarly responsibility.

Authors are fully accountable for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of the manuscript, including verification of any AI-generated content. AI tools must not be listed as authors or co-authors.

If generative AI tools have been used, a declaration must be included in a separate section before the References at the time of initial submission. The declaration is not required for basic tools used solely for spelling, grammar, or reference checking.

 

Conflicts of Interest / Competing Interests

• All authors must disclose any potential conflict of interest (financial, personal, intellectual, institutional) that could be perceived to influence the work.
• Disclosures should be made at the time of submission in a dedicated section (Conflict of Interest Declaration) and will be published with the article.
• Examples include company employment, consultancies, speaker fees, research grants, patents, stock ownership.
• The journal will follow COPE recommendations for assessing and managing conflicts. (publicationethics.org)

 

Ethical Requirements - Human Participants, Animals, Clinical Trials

Human participants

• Manuscripts reporting human research must include a statement in Methods describing:
  • Name of the ethics committee that approved the study (with approval number).
  • Statement that research adhered to the Declaration of Helsinki and local/national regulations.

Clinical trial registration

• Prospective clinical trials must be registered in a publicly accessible registry (e.g., CTRI, ClinicalTrials.gov) prior to recruitment. The registration number and registry name must be provided in the Title Page and Methods. Trials should be reported according to CONSORT. (equator-network.org)

Systematic review registration

• Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should be prospectively registered in a publicly accessible registry such as PROSPERO. The registration number and registry name must be provided in the Title Page and Methods section. Reviews should be reported in accordance with PRISMA guidelines.

Animal research

• Animal experiments must include details of ethical approval(with approval number), adherence to national/international guidelines (e.g., CPCSEA for India), housing and care, analgesia/anesthesia, and humane endpoints.

Patient privacy

• Remove patient identifiers from figures and images. For any potentially identifying information, written informed consent for publication must be obtained and a statement included.

 

Reporting Guidelines and Checklists (EQUATOR Network)

Authors must use appropriate reporting checklists depending on the study design. VJAM strongly recommends consulting the EQUATOR Network to select the correct guideline. Examples include:

• CONSORT for randomized controlled trials (use CONSORT 2025 checklist). (equator-network.org)
• PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
• STROBE for observational studies.
• STARD for diagnostic accuracy studies.
• CARE for case reports (authors must include a CARE checklist). (CARE Case Report Guidelines)

Authors are requested to upload the completed checklist(s) as supplementary files at submission.

 

Data Sharing and Transparency

• Authors are encouraged to deposit datasets, protocols, and analytic code in public repositories (e.g., Dryad, Zenodo) where possible, and include a Data Availability Statement indicating where data can be accessed.
• Clinical trials must submit data sharing statements in line with journal/publisher policy.

 

Key References and Standards Consulted

• ICMJE - Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals (authorship & reporting). (icmje.org)
• COPE - Committee on Publication Ethics (conflict of interest and ethical standards). (publicationethics.org)
• EQUATOR Network - reporting guidelines hub (PRISMA, CONSORT, STROBE, STARD etc.). (equator-network.org)
• CONSORT 2025 Statement - reporting randomized controlled trials. (equator-network.org)
• CARE guidelines - Case report reporting checklist and resources. (CARE Case Report Guidelines)