Research Ethics Policy
The World Review of Research and Innovation (WRRI) publishes only research that has been conducted ethically and lawfully. Authors are responsible for meeting the ethical standards, institutional regulations and legal requirements that apply to their work, particularly when it involves human participants, personal or sensitive information, or vulnerable people.
1. General Principles
Research should be honest and responsible and should respect participants' rights, dignity, privacy, safety and wellbeing. Any required ethical approval must be in place before data collection starts.
2. Research with People
Social research involving surveys, interviews, observation, experiments or focus groups must comply with institutional, national and international ethical norms. Where required, it must be approved by an ethics committee, institutional review board or equivalent body, and this must be reported in the paper.
3. Reporting Approval
Papers should give:
- the name of the approving committee or institution;
- the reference number of the approval, if any; and
- the approval date or other relevant information.
If approval was not required, the authors should explain why. WRRI may request copies of approval documents.
4. Informed Consent
Participants should normally give informed consent. They need clear information about the study so they can decide freely whether to take part, and the method of obtaining consent should suit the participants and the design of the research.
5. Confidentiality and Anonymity
Authors must protect participants' identities, avoid publishing unnecessary identifying details, and anonymise or secure names and other identifiers in the text, data, images, transcripts, quotations and supplementary files.
6. Sensitive Information
Studies that collect sensitive personal information require appropriate safeguards. Such information should be published only when there is a clear scholarly and ethical justification and the necessary consent, and aggregated or anonymised reporting should be preferred.
7. Vulnerable Groups
Research with vulnerable people demands extra protection. Authors should explain how participants were protected from harm, pressure or exploitation, and how any additional consent or safeguarding requirements were satisfied.
8. Minors and Adults Unable to Consent
For children or adults who cannot consent for themselves, consent must be obtained from a parent, guardian or legal representative as required, together with the participant's own agreement wherever possible.
9. Avoiding Harm
Researchers should minimise psychological, social, legal, professional, physical and other foreseeable risks to participants, and should take particular care with sensitive subjects.
10. Digital and Online Research
Studies using social media, websites, online forums or other digital sources must consider privacy, consent and platform terms of use. Content that is publicly visible online is not automatically free of ethical constraints.
11. Data Management
Personal and research data must be stored, transferred, shared and archived securely and in accordance with data-protection law.
12. Consent for Publication
Where a photograph, case description, quotation or other detail could identify a person, consent to publish should be obtained where required, and identifying details that are not essential should be removed.
13. Animals
Any research involving animals must comply with institutional and legal requirements, and approval details must be given where applicable.
14. Ethical Questions During Review or After Publication
If ethical concerns arise, WRRI may request further information or documents, contact the relevant institution or ethics body, and act under its publication ethics policies, including by correction, expression of concern or retraction.
15. Authors' Responsibility
Authors are accountable for the ethical conduct of their research and for obtaining all approvals, permissions and consents. Publication in WRRI does not in itself confirm that ethical approval was obtained.
16. Ethics Statement
Where relevant, each paper should contain a short ethics statement covering approval, consent and participant protection.
17. Editorial Checks
Editors may raise ethical questions at any point, from first screening through review and revision to after publication.
Journal: World Review of Research and Innovation (WRRI)
Email: editor@wrri.ibexinstitute.org