Zusammenfassung

It is not uncommon for us to receive queries from prospective authors regarding the peer review process of manuscripts submitted to our journal and some of the requirements we have for manuscripts submitted to our journal, especially Original Articles (for submission guidelines, see https://journals.sagepub.com/authorinstructions/REA). In this editorial, we clarify one important aspect of the peer review process and submission requirements, namely our requirement for ethics approval, and specifically research involving human participants. There are a number of reasons why submissions to Research Ethics might be rejected by the editorial team, without even being sent for peer review. One of these reasons is lack of appropriate ethics approval or evidence of an exemption (otherwise known as a waiver), particularly where the research presented in the manuscript would suggest ethics approval would be required in most if not all jurisdictions (e.g. research involving human participants, research involving animals). Authors who do not have the appropriate approvals for their research sometimes plead ignorance of the requirements; sometimes we are informed that there was no access to an appropriate approval body. How should authors approach research ethics approvals? Our submission guidelines state explicitly that ‘all manuscripts reporting studies with humans or human data, including studies that involve primary collection of personal data such as surveys or interviews, must state the relevant ethics committee provided (or waived) approval.’ This is a common requirement for academic journals; studies that involve human participants and human data are not usually considered for publication unless the appropriate ethics approvals were in place prior to the commencement of the study.

https://doi.org/10.1177/17470161231161402