Medical Ethics Policy

All research must explicitly state in the methods section whether it has received medical ethics approval and if informed consent was obtained. In accordance with the *Measures for Ethical Review of Life Sciences and Medical Research Involving Humans*, any medical research conducted with human subjects or using human biological samples or information data (including health records, behaviors, etc.) must undergo review and approval by the ethics committee of the researcher's institution. Researchers must submit the approval document from the ethics committee upon manuscript submission and include the approval number in the research methods section. It must be ensured that the research subjects or their family members have signed the informed consent form.

Clinical trials (including randomized controlled studies, cohort studies, case-control studies, case reports, research on human bodies or specimens obtained from humans, and psychological or socio-medical questionnaires, etc.) must be registered before implementation at the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform or the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry. The registration number must be noted within the manuscript. All necessary preventive measures must be taken to protect the privacy of research subjects and avoid any materials (text, data, images, etc.) that could potentially identify a patient. Written informed consent from the patient is required for any exceptional circumstances requiring the use of identifiable information.