Ethics Statement

The top priority of the IJVTPR is to publish the highest possible quality theories, research papers, reviews, etc., in the designated subject-areas of the journal. To qualify as such, whatever is accepted for publication must first and foremost be studiously independent of the huge and pervasive vested interests that currently control the vast majority of academic publications particularly in the medical/pharmaceutical industry (Dal-Ré et al., 2019; John P. A. Ioannidis, 2016, 2016; Liu et al., 2017; Lundh et al., 2020; Wong et al., 2017, 2019). While that industry commonly claims the authority of science in the pursuit of truth — the supposedly high ground of moral authority and integrity — it does so, as is well documented, while lining its deep pockets with cash garnered from biased reporting, undeclared conflicts of interest, and sometimes blatantly falsified data. All this has been meticulously documented by John A. P. Ioannidis (2005, 2016, 2019) and by some of the authors and editors of this journal ( Shaw, 2020; Oller et al., 2020; Oller & Shaw, 2020; Children’s Health Defense Team, 2021; Lyons-Weiler, 2021a, 2021b; Oller, 2021; Seneff & Nigh, 2021; Shaw, 2021).

In the spirit of that which “scatters and yet increases” as contrasted with that which “holds back more than it should, but . . . tends to poverty” (Proverbs 11:24), on the one hand, there are no doubt intangible dividends associated with giving away information and making ideas in the scientific arena vulnerable to public scrutiny, empirical testing, and critical examination. On the other hand, there is no ethical basis for objecting to giving away the best available information in the pursuit of truth about the subject-matter of the journal. Our ethical responsibility is met in two ways: first, by maintaining independence from the financial influence of vested interests and, second, by diligently seeking out the truth about the subject-matter of the journal. The end in view is to make every accepted item as perfect as possible by putting it through as many cycles of peer-review, critical suggestions, and revisions as are deemed necessary to bring it to the highest quality attainable at the time of its publication.

The costs of publishing in the IJVTPR are covered by donations. No one associated with the journal profits financially from what is published here. We do not accept advertising, nor do we accept donations from vested interests. IJVTPR is an open access journal that charges no fees to readers or users. Authors are asked to contribute $300 per accepted article to help cover the costs of article processing, site maintenance, and so forth, but at this time there are no required fees associated with the articles appearing in the journal. Money received is used solely for the sake of maintaining the journal. Editors, reviewers, and contributing authors receive no remuneration and no direct financial benefit from the journal. The journal qualifies for 501(c)(3) status and application for a letter of determination from the IRS verifying that status is being made.

Finally, rather than produce lists of errata or corrections that are rarely accessed by readers (and that can only be appropriately understood and applied to already published works with a level of effort hardly likely ever to be expended by most readers), our policy is to correct and replace the whole article with the corrections having been made in the text, figures, references, hyperlinks, or wherever needed as soon as they are discovered. If there are substantial content corrections, as occurred in Sin Hang Lee’s paper about “Toll-like receptor 9 agonists in HPV vaccine Gardasil9” (2020, 2021), our plan is to re-issue the whole paper. Because content was significantly altered in that exemplary case, we re-issued the paper in its entirety, with comments on the clearly marked changes. The highest priority in the final analysis is to represent the facts of the relevant subject-matter of the journal as accurately as possible.

References

Children’s Health Defense Team. (2021). Planned Surveillance and Control by Global Technocrats: A Big-Picture Look at the Current Pandemic Beneficiaries. International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research, 1(2), 143–171. https://ijvtpr.com/index.php/IJVTPR/article/view/7

Dal-Ré, R., Caplan, A. L., & Marusic, A. (2019). Editors’ and authors’ individual conflicts of interest disclosure and journal transparency. A cross-sectional study of high-impact medical specialty journals. BMJ Open, 9(7), e029796. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-029796

Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2005). Why most published research findings are false. PLoS Med, 2(8), e124. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124

Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2016a). Evidence-based medicine has been hijacked: A report to David Sackett. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 73, 82–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2016.02.012

Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2016b). The mass production of redundant, misleading, and conflicted systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Milbank Quarterly, 94(3), 485–514. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0009.12210

Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2019). Cochrane crisis: Secrecy, intolerance and evidence-based values. European Journal of Clinical Investigation, 49(3), UNSP e13058. https://doi.org/10.1111/eci.13058

Lee, S. H. (2020). Toll-like Receptor 9 Agonists in HPV Vaccine Gardasil9. International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research, 1(1), 75–97. https://ijvtpr.com/index.php/IJVTPR/article/view/5

Lee, S. H. (2021). Toll-like Receptor 9 Agonists in HPV Vaccine Gardasil9. International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research, 1(2), 295–317. https://ijvtpr.com/index.php/IJVTPR/article/view/13

Liu, J. J., Bell, C. M., Matelski, J. J., Detsky, A. S., & Cram, P. (2017). Payments by US pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers to US medical journal editors: Retrospective observational study. BMJ, 359, j4619. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j4619

Lundh, A., Rasmussen, K., Østengaard, L., Boutron, I., Stewart, L. A., & Hróbjartsson, A. (2020). Systematic review finds that appraisal tools for medical research studies address conflicts of interest superficially. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 120, 104–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2019.12.005

Lyons-Weiler, J. (2021a). Plan B Public Health Infrastructure and Operations Oversight Reform for America. International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research, 1(2), 283–294. https://ijvtpr.com/index.php/IJVTPR/article/view/19

Lyons-Weiler, J. (2021b). Balance of Risk in COVID-19 Reveals the Extreme Cost of False Positives. International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research, 1(2), 209–222. https://ijvtpr.com/index.php/IJVTPR/article/view/15

Oller, J. W. (2021). Weaponized Pathogens and the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic. International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research, 1(2), 172–208. https://ijvtpr.com/index.php/IJVTPR/article/view/16

Oller, J. W., & Shaw, C. A. (2020). Brave New World: Omens and Opportunities in the Age of COVID-19. International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research, 1(1), 1–10. https://ijvtpr.com/index.php/IJVTPR/article/view/2

Oller, J. W., Shaw, C. A., Tomljenovic, L., Ngare, W., Karanja, S., Pillette, J., & Clement, F. (2020). Addendum to “hCG found in tetanus vaccine”: Examination of alleged “ethical concerns” based on false claims by certain of our critics. International Jouurnal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research, 1(1), 27–50.

Seneff, S., & Nigh, G. (2021). Worse Than the Disease? Reviewing Some Possible Unintended Consequences of the mRNA Vaccines Against COVID-19. International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research, 2(1), 38–79. https://ijvtpr.com/index.php/IJVTPR/article/view/23

Shaw, C. A. (2020). Weaponizing the Peer Review System. International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research, 1(1), 11–26. https://ijvtpr.com/index.php/IJVTPR/article/view/1

Shaw, C. A. (2021). The Age of COVID-19: Fear, Loathing, and the “New Normal.” International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research, 1(2), 98–142. https://ijvtpr.com/index.php/IJVTPR/article/view/11

Wong, V. S. S., Avalos, L. N., & Callaham, M. L. (2017). Industry payments to physician journal editors (e3359v1). PeerJ Inc. https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.3359v1

Wong, V. S. S., Avalos, L. N., & Callaham, M. L. (2019). Industry payments to physician journal editors. PLOS ONE, 14(2), e0211495. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211495