Research Ethics

Purpose and Scope

The SDEWES Journals Research Ethics Policy sets out the principles and procedures for ensuring that research submitted to journals published by SDEWES Centre is conducted and reported in accordance with applicable ethical, legal, institutional and professional requirements.

This policy applies to all submitted, accepted and published manuscripts, including regular articles, review articles, special issue papers, article collections, conference-linked submissions and supplementary materials.

It applies to authors, reviewers, Editors-in-Chief, Associate Editors, Guest Editors, Editorial Board members, SDEWES Centre staff or representatives involved in editorial or publication activities, and other individuals participating in the editorial, peer-review or publication process.

The policy covers research involving human participants, communities, surveys, interviews, questionnaires, stakeholder engagement, personal or identifiable information, fieldwork, environmental sampling, protected areas, hazardous materials or procedures, animals, protected species, biodiversity, industrial or confidential data, and other activities requiring ethical review, consent, permission, permits, licences or safety approval.

In this policy, the responsible editor means the Editor-in-Chief or another editor authorised by the journal to assess the matter, provided that the person has no relevant competing interest.

Related guidance, statement templates, declaration forms and checklists relevant to this policy are listed in Appendix A: Related COPE and International Guidance and Appendix B: Practical Forms, Statements and Checklists.

General Principles

Research submitted to SDEWES journals must be conducted with integrity, transparency, accountability and respect for the rights, dignity, welfare and legitimate interests of participants, communities, animals, the environment and other affected parties.

Authors are responsible for determining and complying with the ethical, legal, institutional and professional requirements applicable to their research. This includes obtaining any required ethics approval, consent, waiver, exemption, permission, permit, licence, safety approval or data-use authorisation before the relevant research activity begins.

SDEWES journals and SDEWES Centre do not grant research ethics approval and do not replace institutional ethics committees, competent authorities, research institutions or other bodies responsible for overseeing research conduct.

Ethical requirements should be assessed proportionately according to the nature of the research, the participants or environments involved, the information collected, the possible risks or harms and the applicable regulatory or institutional framework.

Research ethics is not limited to biomedical research. Ethical considerations may arise in engineering, environmental, energy, water, infrastructure, urban, circular-economy, industrial, policy, social-acceptance, stakeholder-engagement, fieldwork and data-based studies.

Determining and Documenting Research-Ethics Requirements

Many manuscripts submitted to SDEWES journals are based on modelling, simulation, engineering design, system analysis, laboratory testing, literature review, policy analysis, publicly available non-personal data or theoretical work and may not require formal ethics approval.

Authors must nevertheless determine before conducting the research whether ethics approval, informed consent, an ethics waiver or exemption, institutional permission, environmental or conservation permits, site-access approval, safety approval, data-use permission or another authorisation is required.

Where formal approval, consent, permission or a permit is required, it must normally be obtained before the relevant research activity begins. Retrospective ethics approval is not normally acceptable where prior approval should have been obtained.

Where ethics approval was waived, exempted or not required, the manuscript must explain the applicable institutional, legal or professional basis for that conclusion. A study should not be described as exempt merely because the authors consider it to be low risk. Where appropriate, the journal may request confirmation from an ethics committee, institution or other competent body.

Where approval was obtained, the manuscript must identify the approving body, approval reference or number and approval date, where available. The journal may request proportionate supporting documentation where necessary to assess compliance.

Authors must not submit confidential ethics documentation, participant information or personal data beyond what is necessary for the editorial assessment.

Human Participants, Informed Consent and Vulnerable Groups

Research involving human participants must comply with applicable ethical, legal, institutional and professional requirements.

Human-participant research may include surveys, questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, workshops, stakeholder consultations, behavioural research, social-acceptance studies, expert elicitation and research involving personal, household, building-user, mobility, location or energy-consumption data.

Where required, ethics approval or an appropriate waiver or exemption must be obtained before recruitment or data collection.

Participants should receive information appropriate to the study, including:

• the purpose and responsible organisation or researchers; 
• what participation involves; 
• whether participation is voluntary; 
• reasonably foreseeable risks, burdens or benefits; 
• how information will be used, stored and protected; 
• whether responses will be anonymous, pseudonymised or identifiable; 
• whether quotations, images or recordings may be published; and 
• whether and how participation or data may be withdrawn, where applicable. 

Informed consent must be obtained where required. The form of consent may vary according to the study and applicable requirements, but it must be appropriately documented where necessary.

Consent to participate does not automatically constitute consent to publish identifiable names, quotations, images, recordings or case details. Separate or explicit permission for publication must be obtained where required.

Research involving children, persons with limited decision-making autonomy, employees or students in dependent relationships, marginalised groups, Indigenous or local communities, or persons exposed to legal, financial, social or reputational risk requires additional safeguards appropriate to the circumstances. Recruitment, consent and reporting must avoid coercion, undue influence, exploitation or unnecessary identification.

Surveys, Interviews and Stakeholder Engagement

Surveys, interviews, questionnaires, workshops, focus groups, expert elicitation and stakeholder-engagement activities must be conducted and reported transparently and ethically.

Authors should consider recruitment methods, voluntary participation, incentives or compensation, power relationships, recording, confidentiality, data reuse, publication of quotations and the practical ability of participants to withdraw.

A participant’s professional or public role does not automatically remove the need to consider consent, confidentiality, attribution or possible harm. Publicly accessible statements or online information should not automatically be treated as ethically unrestricted where individuals or groups may remain identifiable.

Where formal ethics approval is required, it must be obtained before data collection. Where it is not required, the manuscript should explain the basis for that conclusion and describe how participant rights, privacy and confidentiality were protected.

These requirements are particularly relevant to studies involving public acceptance of technologies, community-energy initiatives, stakeholder mapping, policy consultations, user behaviour, municipal planning, industrial interviews or expert elicitation.

Personal Data, Privacy and Identifiable Information

Research involving personal data, identifiable information or confidential information must comply with applicable requirements and Privacy.

Personal or identifiable information may include names, contact details, demographic information, survey responses, interview recordings, photographs, videos, direct quotations, online or social-media information, household or smart-meter data, building-occupancy data, mobility information, geospatial data or combinations of information that permit direct or indirect identification.

Authors must apply appropriate data minimisation, anonymisation, pseudonymisation, aggregation, access restriction or other safeguards. Identifiable information must not be published unless publication is ethically justified and the necessary consent or permission has been obtained.

Consent to collect or analyse information does not necessarily authorise public disclosure. Images, recordings, direct quotations or case descriptions that may identify individuals require specific consideration and, where applicable, consent for publication.

Privacy-related restrictions on data, supplementary materials or repository deposits must be explained under Research Data and Transparency. Detailed privacy declarations, incident handling and personal-data requests are governed by Privacy.

Fieldwork, Environmental Sampling and Permits

Research involving fieldwork, environmental sampling, monitoring, site access, protected areas, regulated environments, community land, private property or industrial and infrastructure sites must comply with applicable ethical, legal, environmental and institutional requirements.

Required permissions may include:

• environmental or biodiversity sampling permits; 
• access permission from landowners, communities, site operators or authorities; 
• permits for protected areas, including Natura 2000 sites or equivalent national or international designations; 
• permits or licences concerning protected species, habitats or biological material; 
• authorisation for collection, transport, export or import of samples; 
• permission to use traditional, local or community knowledge; and 
• compliance with applicable access and benefit-sharing requirements. 

Permits and permissions must normally be obtained before the activity begins. Where relevant to the evaluation of the research, the manuscript should identify the issuing authority, permit or approval reference and applicable date.

Site-access permission does not replace research ethics approval where the activity also involves human participants, personal data or another independently regulated research activity.

Hazardous Materials, Procedures, Equipment and Sites

Research involving hazardous materials, procedures, equipment or sites must comply with applicable safety, institutional, environmental and legal requirements.

Relevant hazards may include chemicals, fuels, gases, solvents, hydrogen, ammonia, batteries, high-pressure or high-temperature systems, electrical systems, contaminated materials, pollutants, toxic substances, hazardous waste, pilot plants, laboratory rigs, industrial equipment or field sites presenting health, safety or environmental risks.

Authors must identify unusual or material hazards and describe the safety, containment or risk-management measures applied in sufficient detail for readers to evaluate the work.

Authors should not include operational details that create an unreasonable safety, security or misuse risk. Confidential or security-sensitive information should be limited while preserving sufficient methodological transparency.

Any required safety approval, training, institutional authorisation or regulatory permission must be obtained before the hazardous activity is conducted.

Animal Research, Biodiversity and Protected Species

Research involving animals, protected species, biodiversity monitoring, ecological sampling, habitat disturbance or collection of biological material must comply with applicable animal-welfare, ethical, legal, institutional and conservation requirements.

Where regulated animal research is conducted, authors must obtain approval from the relevant ethics committee, animal-welfare body or competent authority before the research begins. The research should apply appropriate principles for replacement, reduction and refinement and must minimise avoidable pain, distress or harm.

Manuscripts reporting in vivo animal research should follow recognised reporting standards, including the ARRIVE Guidelines 2.0 where applicable.

Observational, monitoring or field-based wildlife research may not always require formal animal ethics approval, but relevant collection, handling, disturbance, protected-species or conservation permits must be obtained where required.

Field and ecological research must minimise unnecessary harm to individual animals, populations, habitats and ecosystems. Required approvals, permits and licences should be reported in the manuscript.

Industrial, Commercial, Municipal and Confidential Data

Authors must have the necessary rights and permissions to use and publish industrial, commercial, municipal, utility, infrastructure, building, energy-system, company or project-partner data.

Publication must not breach confidentiality agreements, contractual obligations, data-use conditions, privacy requirements, intellectual-property rights or legal and security restrictions.

Restrictions on access to supporting data, code or models must be explained under Research Data and Transparency. Personal or identifiable information must be handled under Privacy, while copyright, licensing and third-party permission requirements are governed by Copyright & Licensing.

Funding, project-partner involvement and related institutional or commercial interests must be declared under Competing Interests and Funding Disclosure.

Authors should provide sufficient information for evaluation and reproducibility without disclosing confidential, proprietary or security-sensitive details unnecessarily.

Research Ethics Statements and Submission Declarations

Authors must include a research ethics statement where the study involves human participants, consent, personal or identifiable information, surveys, interviews, stakeholder engagement, vulnerable groups, animal research, protected species, regulated fieldwork, environmental permits, hazardous procedures, confidential data or another material research-ethics issue.

The statement should identify, where applicable:

• the ethics committee, institutional review body, competent authority or other approving organisation; 
• approval, waiver, exemption, permit or licence reference and date; 
• the basis on which formal approval was not required; 
• informed-consent and participant-information procedures; 
• consent or permission for publication of identifiable material; 
• safeguards for vulnerable participants, communities or groups; 
• fieldwork, site-access, environmental or conservation permits; 
• animal-welfare approval and reporting standards; 
• hazardous procedures and safety approvals; and 
• confidential-data permissions and publication restrictions. 

The research ethics statement must be accurate and consistent with the manuscript, supplementary material, Privacy, Research Data and Transparency and any other applicable declaration.

Where no research-ethics issue applies, the journal may collect or require a negative statement depending on the manuscript type and journal instructions. Such a negative statement does not necessarily need to be published in every article.

Where the submission system does not collect the necessary declarations, authors may be required to submit the Research Ethics Declaration Form listed in Appendix B. Standard and editable manuscript wording is provided in the Research Ethics Statement Template.

Research Ethics Concerns and Non-Compliance

Research ethics concerns must be assessed fairly, confidentially and proportionately. A missing or unclear statement does not by itself establish that the research was conducted unethically.

The assessment should distinguish between:

• missing or incomplete manuscript reporting; 
• an unclear approval, waiver, exemption, consent or permit; 
• an approval or permission that exists but requires verification; 
• failure to obtain an approval or permission that should have been obtained; 
• misleading or false research-ethics information; and 
• serious ethical, legal, safety, privacy or research-integrity non-compliance. 

Before publication, the journal may request clarification, revised statements or proportionate supporting documentation and may pause editorial handling, peer review, production or publication while the concern is assessed.

Where required prior approval was not obtained, the matter cannot normally be remedied solely through retrospective approval or revision of the manuscript. Rejection or discontinuation of handling may be appropriate where the ethical basis of the research is unacceptable or cannot be verified.

Where the concern cannot be resolved through author clarification, the journal may contact the relevant institution, ethics committee, competent authority, data owner or another responsible body. Institutional contact should be factual, confidential and coordinated under Publishing Ethics.

Suspected fabrication of approvals, consent records, permits or other declarations, or another possible integrity breach, must be assessed under Publishing Ethics. Data, code or image concerns are additionally assessed under Research Data and Transparency, and privacy concerns under Privacy.

Where the responsible editor has a competing interest, it must be disclosed and managed under Competing Interests and Funding Disclosure, and independent handling must be arranged under Editorial Independence.

Where a concern affects published content, the appropriate amendment or notice must be assessed under Corrections, Retractions and Withdrawals. Formal complaints or appeals concerning the journal’s handling of the matter are assessed under Editorial Decision Appeals and Complaints.

Policy Review and Updates

SDEWES Centre may review and update this policy periodically to reflect developments in research ethics, publication ethics, privacy, data protection, animal welfare, environmental regulation, engineering and fieldwork practice, safety, open science, legal requirements and international standards.

Updated policies apply from the date of publication on the SDEWES Journals Policies website unless otherwise stated.

Appendix A. Related COPE and International Guidance

COPE Council. COPE Flowcharts and infographics - Suspected ethical problem in a submitted manuscript

Relevant where editors identify a possible research-ethics problem before publication, including missing ethics approval, consent concerns, protection of participants, animal-research concerns, or other ethical-compliance issues.

COPE Council. Studies requiring ethics approval

Relevant where editors or authors need to assess whether formal ethics approval should have been obtained for a study. 

COPE Council. COPE position - The Protection of vulnerable groups and individuals

Relevant where research involves vulnerable participants, communities or groups.

COPE Council. COPE Guidelines: Cooperation between research institutions and journals on research integrity and publication misconduct cases

Relevant where a research-ethics or publication-misconduct concern may require cooperation between the journal, SDEWES Centre and the author’s institution or research organisation to clarify responsibilities, request information or support an appropriate investigation.

WMA Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Participants

Relevant where medical or health-related research involves human participants, their identifiable data or biological material.

ARRIVE Guidelines 2.0

Relevant where manuscripts report in vivo animal research and transparent reporting of study design, procedures, animal welfare, analysis and results is required.

Appendix B. Practical Forms, Statements and Checklists

The documents below provide practical support for author declarations, preparation of manuscript research-ethics statements and proportionate assessment of potentially missing, incomplete, misleading or inadequate research-ethics information. Privacy-specific, personal-data and research-data documents are listed in Appendix B of Privacy and Research Data and Transparency.

Research Ethics Declaration Form

Required author submission form, where applicable – Used to declare human-participant research, consent, personal or identifiable information, surveys, interviews, stakeholder engagement, vulnerable groups, fieldwork, permits, animal or protected-species research, hazardous procedures, confidential data and other research-ethics matters. The corresponding author coordinates the submission after obtaining and confirming the relevant information from all authors.

Research Ethics Statement Template

Author guidance template – Used to prepare manuscript statements on ethics approval, consent, waiver, exemption or non-requirement, vulnerable-participant safeguards, publication of identifiable information, fieldwork and conservation permits, animal research, hazardous procedures and confidential-data permissions.

Research Ethics Concern Checklist for Editors

Internal editor and publisher checklist – Used by the responsible editor and, where appropriate, SDEWES Centre where potentially missing, incomplete, inconsistent or inadequate approval, consent, permits, safety information, data-use permission or research-ethics statements are identified before or after publication.