Identify 6What identifies a case in this area?
Research standards violations normally come to light when a referee sees that there was no informed consent on human subjects, or that the animal protection protocols were not being followed. It is a bit more difficult with animal protection, as different countries (e.g. USA) and geographical regions (e.g. European Union) have different standards from official organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO).
If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the national or international guidelines, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach, and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should be asked to indicate whether the institutional and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.