Ethical Clearance

Ethical Clearance  ·  Jurnal Civics
Ethical clearance.
What authors must obtain, report, and state, following COPE.
Mandatory from 2027
Ethical clearance is mandatory from 2027, Volume 24 No. 1, and for all issues after it, for every manuscript that involves people or data about them. A manuscript without it is returned before review.
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Policy
Jurnal Civics expects research to be conducted ethically and reported with transparency. Following the COPE Core Practices on ethical oversight, the journal requires, from 2027 onwards, that research involving people, or data about them, has been reviewed by an appropriate ethics body or formally exempted, and that participants gave informed consent. The journal does not issue ethical clearance itself. It checks that authors have obtained and reported it.
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When it is required
—  Interviews, focus groups, surveys, questionnaires, observation, and experiments with people.
—  Research with children or other vulnerable groups, and research on sensitive topics such as politics, religion, ethnicity, or conflict.
—  Use of personal, identifiable, or confidential data, including records, images, recordings, and social media content that is not clearly public.
—  Any other study where participants could be harmed, identified, or put at risk by taking part or by publication.
Systematic literature reviews, and research that uses only public documents or published data without personal information, usually need no clearance. State this in the manuscript.
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What authors must state
Every manuscript includes an Ethics Approval and Informed Consent statement, placed in the end matter as set out in the Author Guidelines.
Approval The name of the ethics committee or body, the approval or reference number, and the date. Attach a copy to the submission if the editors request it.
Exemption If approval was not required, say so, name who decided it (for example the institution’s ethics committee or the research board), and explain why.
Consent How informed consent was obtained (written or verbal), and from whom. For children, consent from a parent or guardian, and assent from the child where appropriate.
Protection How privacy and confidentiality were protected: anonymisation, safe storage of data, and who had access.
Voluntary That participation was voluntary and participants could withdraw without penalty.
Publication Consent to publish where a person, a quotation, or an image could identify them. Without it, identifying details are removed.
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Example statement
This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of [university name] (reference number [number], [date]). All participants received information about the study and gave their written informed consent before taking part. Participation was voluntary, and data were anonymised and stored securely.
If no clearance was needed: This study used only published documents and contained no personal data, so ethical approval was not required.
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Timing and checks
—  Obtain ethics approval before collecting data. If approval was obtained afterwards or not at all, explain why in the cover letter. The editors may request evidence, ask for an explanation from the author’s institution, or decline the manuscript.
—  Editors and reviewers may query the ethics statement. Missing or unclear statements are returned to the authors before review continues.
—  Concerns about the ethics of published work are handled under the Research Misconduct and Correction, Retraction and Withdrawal policies.
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Related pages