Ethics, Approvals & Data Availability (cc-ethics-registration)

When to trigger

• The study uses animals, human samples, or hazardous agents
• You need the IACUC / IRB / consent / biosafety statements
• You need the Data and code availability statement and accessions
• A clinical-translational component may need trial registration

Animal work — IACUC

• State that all animal procedures were approved by the institutional IACUC (or equivalent), with the protocol number and institution.
• Confirm compliance with relevant national/institutional guidelines.
• Pair with ARRIVE-style methods reporting (sample size, randomization, blinding, humane endpoints) handled in cc-reporting-standards.

Human samples — IRB & consent

• State IRB / ethics committee approval (institution + protocol).
• State that informed consent was obtained (or a documented waiver and its basis).
• Affirm compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki for human-subjects research.
• For patient-identifiable genomic data, note controlled-access deposition (dbGaP/EGA) and any data-use limitations.
• If a clinical trial provided samples/outcomes, give the registration number (e.g., ClinicalTrials.gov) and registry.

Biosafety & other compliance

• Note biosafety level / institutional biosafety approval for pathogens, lentivirus/retrovirus, or hazardous reagents where relevant.
• Recombinant DNA / dual-use considerations if applicable.
• Disclose any field-collected or regulated materials (permits).

Data and code availability (Cell Press standard)

Provide an explicit statement with three components:

1. Data — all newly generated datasets deposited and accessions listed (GEO/SRA for sequencing; dbGaP/EGA for controlled human genomics; PRIDE for proteomics; PDB/EMDB for structures; MetaboLights/Workbench for metabolomics). State public availability as of publication date.
2. Code — any original/custom code deposited in a citable repository with a DOI (e.g., Zenodo release of a GitHub tag).
3. Other — any additional information/reagents available from the lead contact on request.

Accessions must also appear in the Key Resources Table. "Available on request" is not acceptable for the data types above.

Authorship & disclosure (usually adjacent)

• Author contributions (CRediT-style), competing-interests declaration, and funding statement are typically required — confirm current sections on the author page.

Checklist

• IACUC approval stated with protocol # and institution (if animals)
• IRB/ethics approval + informed consent (or waiver) stated (if human samples)
• Declaration of Helsinki compliance affirmed (human subjects)
• Controlled-access deposition noted for patient-identifiable genomics
• Trial registration number given (if a registered trial supplied data)
• Biosafety / hazardous-agent approvals noted where relevant
• Data availability: all accessions listed and in the KRT
• Code deposited with a citable DOI
• Competing interests, funding, and author contributions drafted

Anti-patterns

• "Animal experiments followed guidelines" with no IACUC approval/number
• Human samples used with no IRB/consent statement
• Genomic patient data with no controlled-access plan
• "Data available upon request" for sequencing/proteomics/structures
• Missing or vague competing-interests / funding declarations
• Trial-derived data with no registration number

Ethics pass for Cancer Cell

Use this as a second-pass capability check. First lock the cancer context, mechanism, model system, validation chain, and translational boundary; then test whether the manuscript addresses cancer-biology reviewers who expect mechanistic oncology, translational relevance, and strong multi-modal validation.

• Primary move: Check consent/approval, registration, safety, privacy, data sharing, and disclosure statements before claiming compliance.
• Decision ledger: return claim / evidence / blocker / next edit rows so the next pass can patch the manuscript directly.
• Neighbor test: compare against Cell for broader biology, Nature Cancer for oncology breadth, Clinical Cancer Research for clinical translation; if the neighboring outlet has the stronger audience claim, recommend re-routing before polishing.
• Verification floor: before submission-ready advice, re-open resources/official-source-map.md for volatile rules and name the one unresolved fact that could change the recommendation.

Output format

【Animal】IACUC approval + protocol #? Y/N
【Human】IRB + consent + Helsinki? controlled-access if needed? Y/N
【Biosafety】approvals noted where relevant? Y/N
【Trial registration】number given (if applicable)? Y/N
【Data availability】accessions listed + in KRT? Y/N
【Code】DOI deposited? Y/N
【Disclosures】competing interests / funding / contributions? Y/N
【Next step】cc-writing-style or cc-submission