Research Ethics / Ethical Oversight Policy of TJEB
1. General Principles
TJEB is committed to upholding high standards of research ethics and ethical oversight in all published work. Research involving human participants, personal data, organisations, communities, animals, or other ethically sensitive subjects must be conducted in accordance with applicable ethical principles, legal requirements, and institutional standards. Authors are responsible for ensuring that their research complies with relevant ethical requirements and that appropriate approvals, permissions, and safeguards have been obtained where necessary.
2. Research Involving Human Participants
Research involving human participants must be conducted in accordance with recognised ethical principles, including respect for persons, voluntary participation, informed consent, privacy, and protection from harm. This includes, but is not limited to, research involving:
- surveys;
- interviews;
- focus groups;
- experiments;
- observations of individuals;
- collection or analysis of personal or sensitive data.
Where human participants are involved, authors must state clearly in the manuscript whether ethical approval was obtained and how informed consent was addressed.
3. Ethics Approval
Where required, research must have received prior approval from an appropriate ethics committee, institutional ethics body, or other authorised authority before the research was conducted. The manuscript must include, where applicable:
- the name of the approving committee or body;
- the approval number or reference, where available;
- a statement confirming that approval was obtained before the study was undertaken.
If ethics approval was not required, the authors must state this clearly and, where appropriate, explain the basis for this determination.
4. Informed Consent
Where research involves human participants, authors must confirm that informed consent was obtained from participants where required. Informed consent should be:
- voluntary;
- based on adequate information;
- obtained prior to participation.
Where written consent was not feasible or was not required, the manuscript should explain how consent was obtained or why it was not necessary.
5. Identifiable Information
If a manuscript includes identifiable personal information, images, recordings, case details, or any other material through which an individual may be recognised, authors must ensure that appropriate consent for publication has been obtained. Authors must take all reasonable steps to protect anonymity and confidentiality unless explicit permission for identification has been provided.
6. Research Involving Animals
Research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international standards for animal welfare and ethical treatment. Where animal research is involved, authors must provide:
- the name of the approving ethics committee or authority, where applicable;
- the approval number or reference, where available;
- a statement confirming that appropriate welfare and ethical standards were followed.
TJEB does not accept research involving unethical treatment of animals.
7. Field, Community, and Organisational Research
Research conducted in field settings, communities, organisations, firms, institutions, or other social settings must be conducted ethically and with appropriate respect for participants, stakeholders, and affected groups. Where relevant, authors should ensure:
- appropriate permission to access research sites or organisations;
- respect for community, institutional, or organisational norms where ethically appropriate;
- protection of participants and affected parties from harm, misrepresentation, or unjustified exposure.
8. Privacy and Confidentiality
Authors must protect the privacy, dignity, and confidentiality of research participants and other affected persons. Sensitive or personal data must be handled responsibly and, where relevant, anonymised or de-identified. Authors must ensure that data collection, storage, analysis, and reporting are consistent with applicable ethical and legal requirements.
9. Ethics Approval Exemptions
Not all research requires formal ethics committee approval. However, the absence of a formal approval requirement does not remove the obligation to conduct research ethically. If formal ethics approval was not required, authors must:
- state this clearly in the manuscript where relevant;
- ensure that the research was conducted in accordance with applicable ethical principles;
- explain the basis for the absence of formal approval where appropriate.
10. Editorial Assessment of Research Ethics
TJEB reserves the right to request additional information, documentation, clarification, or evidence relating to research ethics, ethical approval, consent, confidentiality, or other ethical safeguards. Where ethical concerns arise, the journal may:
- request clarification or revision;
- seek further editorial assessment;
- reject the manuscript;
- take further action in accordance with the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement.
11. Compliance with Related Journal Policies
Authors must comply with this policy together with other relevant TJEB documents, including:
- Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
- Authorship and Contributorship Policy
- Competing Interests / Conflict of Interest Policy
- Data Availability and Reproducibility Policy
- AI Use Policy for Authors, Reviewers and Editors
- Guide for Authors