Ethical Oversight

Research involving human participants (e.g., vulnerable groups, field surveys, social experiments) must adhere to ethical standards. Authors must provide details of Ethical Clearance approval from an institutional ethics committee and proof of written Informed Consent from participants.

Consent for publication. Where an individual could be identified from text, quotations, images, or other details in the article, authors must obtain written consent for publication from that person (or from a parent or guardian), and the article must state that this consent was obtained. Where consent cannot be obtained, identifying details must be removed.

Exemption from ethics review. If a study involving human participants was exempt from ethics review, authors must state in the Methods section who granted the exemption and on what grounds, and provide the exemption document to the editors on request. Manuscripts without either an approval or a documented exemption will not be sent for review.