Excerpt from the P.I.E. Guidelines for E.B. Members – Confidentiality

1    No documents should be shared with the editor of other journals or organisations unless permission is granted or in specific cases of misconduct.

2    There is generally no rule obliging editorial staff intosubmitting articles to lawyers for court cases.

3    Confidentiality on the part of the peer reviewer and author must be stressed. Systems should be in place to monitor the actions of the reviewer with a consistent line of communication being maintained.

4    Robust and up to date security systems should be in place to avoid any data protection breaches in case studies involving humans. Patient confidentiality is a legal requirement and all articles should have the correct consent forms and paper work pertaining to the governing guidelines in the specific area of publication.

5    All material under review is confidential and should therefore never be discussed or exposed to anyone outside of the editorial team unless there is a certified reason to do so.

6    All members of the editorial board are required to pass on the principle of confidentiality to their co-workers, as well as authors and reviewers. Any breach must be reported immediately to the editor in chief.

7    Consent forms for any images, quotes, case studies, reports, eye witnesses, or any other personal reference, should be sought before publication. Clear stipulation about the role this information will play must be relayed in full to the relevant person.