Principles and proportionate oversight
Research must be lawful, responsibly designed, honestly reported, and conducted under ethical or institutional oversight where applicable. Report the reviewing body, decision or exemption, and reference details where available.
Requirements depend on methods and risks; human-research approval is not imposed on mathematics, theoretical physics, or other work to which it is irrelevant.
Human participants and informed consent
Where applicable, report prior approval or exemption, informed consent for participation, and safeguards for autonomy, welfare, privacy, and confidentiality. Departures from ordinary consent require ethical and legal justification.
Consent for publication and identifiable information
Consent to participate does not automatically permit publication of identifiable details. Images, narratives, indirect identifiers, children, minors, and vulnerable participants require particular care, data minimization, and publication consent where identification is possible.
Human material, genetics, samples, and secondary use
Human biological material, genetic or genomic information, records, stored samples, and secondary datasets must be used consistently with applicable consent, governance, access, privacy, and ethics conditions.
Animal research and welfare
Animal work must document required prior approval, lawful sourcing and conduct, welfare safeguards, humane endpoints, and responsible design and reporting. Authors should justify the model and minimize avoidable harm where applicable.
Field, ecological, and agricultural research
Report site access, collection or export permits, protected-species requirements, ecological safeguards, and permissions for community knowledge where applicable. Agricultural work should address relevant welfare, field-trial, organism, pesticide, and biosafety requirements.
Biological, modified, hazardous, and regulated materials
Work involving biological agents, genetically modified organisms, controlled substances, hazardous materials, or regulated equipment must meet applicable institutional, legal, biosafety, containment, transport, and reporting requirements.
Dual-use and potentially harmful research
Authors should identify unusual biological, environmental, security, or societal risks for proportionate assessment. Publication may be limited only where justified by law, safety, rights, or responsible risk management.
AI and data-driven research
Research using AI, automated decisions, large or web-sourced datasets, biometrics, or behavioural data should address provenance, lawful access, consent, privacy, bias, validation, and foreseeable harm where applicable.
Research without formal ethics review
Explain why review was not required or unavailable and what safeguards applied. Retrospective approval does not automatically cure missing required prior oversight; editors may decline work where compliance cannot be established.
Documentation, reporting, and later concerns
Editors may request approvals, permits, consent materials, protocols, or other records. Applicable reporting standards should be followed. Later concerns may lead to action under scholarly-record policy.
Author responsibility
Authors remain responsible for ethical conduct, accurate declarations, protection of people and environments, and cooperation with enquiries at editorial@anvapublishing.com.