The aim of this study was to analyze the norms about ethics in research with human beings included in the guidelines of orthopedics and traumatology scientific journals. Thirty-eight journals were analyzed: 52,6% do not mention ethical aspects, 28,9% submit to approval by the Institution's Ethical Committee, 15,7% follow the orientation of the Uniform Requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals, and 2,6% ask the patients' consent; aspects related to the patients' privacy were found in 36,8% of the studied journals. The results indicate that most orthopedics and traumatology journals show little concern with the human beings research ethical aspects in their guidelines.
Ethics; research; publication