Ethics and Disclosures

Our commitment

Ethical publishing protects the quality of the scholarly record, sustains public trust in research and ensures people receive credit for their work. ASSRJ is a member of COPE and follows its Core Practices, and is guided by ICMJE concepts where relevant and by DOAJ principles of transparency and best practice. The journal handles concerns using the relevant COPE flowcharts.

The declarations below must appear in your manuscript after the main text, before the references. State “None” or “Not applicable” where relevant — but do not omit them.

Authorship and contributor roles (CRediT)

Everyone listed as an author should have made a substantial contribution to the work and approved the final manuscript. Drawing on ICMJE concepts, authorship is based on: substantial contribution to conception/design or to acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data; drafting or critically revising the work; approval of the final version; and accountability for the work. Contributors who do not meet these criteria should be named in the Acknowledgements.

Specify each author’s contribution using the CRediT taxonomy — for example Conceptualisation, Methodology, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Data Curation, Writing – Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing, Supervision, or Funding Acquisition.

The corresponding author submits on behalf of all co-authors and warrants that all have read and approved the submission. Any change to the author list after submission requires the written agreement of all authors and the editor’s approval. The corresponding author is required to provide an ORCID iD; all co-authors are strongly encouraged to do so.

Conflicts of interest and funding

Declare any financial or non-financial interest that could be perceived to influence the work — for example consultancies, advisory roles, shareholdings, board memberships, or relevant personal or professional relationships. In the social sciences, also consider advocacy roles, funding from organisations with a stake in the findings, or a close relationship with a community or institution being studied. If there are none, state: “The authors declare no conflicts of interest.” Identify all sources of funding, including grant numbers and the funder’s role (if any) in the study’s design, conduct, analysis or reporting. If the research received no specific funding, state this.

Research ethics and informed consent

Research involving human participants must be conducted ethically and lawfully, with appropriate ethics approval and informed consent. State the approving body and reference number, or explain why approval was not required. Studies should be consistent with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki where applicable, and with relevant national, institutional and data-protection requirements.

Participants should give informed, voluntary consent, having understood the study’s purpose, what participation involves, how their data will be used and stored, and their right to withdraw. Where participants are identifiable (including in quotations, images or small-sample case studies), obtain written consent to publish.

Sensitive data and vulnerable participants. Take additional care with sensitive personal data (for example health, sexuality, religion, ethnicity, political views or legal status) and with research involving children or other vulnerable groups. Describe the safeguards used — appropriate consent or assent and guardian permission, data minimisation, secure storage and anonymisation — and maintain anonymity and confidentiality unless participants have explicitly consented to be identified.

Data sharing and research transparency

Every research article should include a Data Availability Statement describing whether, and how, the data supporting the findings can be accessed. We encourage deposit in a recognised repository wherever ethically and legally possible, with a dataset DOI or accession number. Where data cannot be shared — to protect participants’ confidentiality, or because of consent terms, legal restrictions or third-party ownership — say so and explain why. Example statements:

Use of generative-AI tools

If generative-AI tools (for example large language models) were used in preparing the manuscript, disclose this in a statement naming the tool and version and describing how it was used (for example language editing or summarising literature).

Plagiarism, duplicate submission and originality

Manuscripts must be original, not published previously, and not under consideration elsewhere. Always attribute statements, data, figures and tables drawn from others’ work, with complete and accurate citations. Submissions are screened for originality using plagiarism-detection software. The following are not allowed:

Where overlap with prior work exists (for example a thesis, working paper or conference paper), declare it on submission; this is permitted and not duplicate publication, provided it is transparent and the manuscript is a substantial, properly cited development of the earlier work.

Editorial independence and handling misconduct

Editors have complete editorial freedom to determine the journal’s content. Decisions are based solely on a manuscript’s validity, rigour and importance, and are never influenced by authors’ origin, nationality, ethnicity, race, religion, gender or beliefs, or by commercial or political interests. Where misconduct is suspected, the journal investigates following COPE guidance, gives authors an opportunity to respond, and may correct or retract the published record where necessary.