Ethical Oversight

Introduction

Accesso Journal is fundamentally committed to ensuring that all research published within it is conducted to the highest ethical standards. Ethical oversight is a shared responsibility, involving authors, their institutions, funding bodies, peer reviewers, and the journal itself. This policy outlines Accesso Journal's requirements and procedures for ensuring that research is conducted and reported responsibly, respecting the rights, dignity, and welfare of all participants, data integrity, and compliance with relevant ethical and legal frameworks. Accesso Journal adheres to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices in this regard.

Description

Ethical oversight in the context of scholarly publishing refers to the processes and policies designed to ensure that research is conducted and disseminated ethically. For Accesso Journal, this primarily encompasses:

• Protection of Human Participants: Ensuring that research involving human subjects (e.g., in ergonomic studies, workplace analyses, surveys, interviews, or organizational studies) has obtained appropriate consent, protects participant privacy and confidentiality, and considers the welfare of vulnerable populations.

• Data Privacy and Confidentiality: Safeguarding sensitive information from individuals or organizations (e.g., private company proprietary data used in case studies or optimization models) and complying with data protection regulations.

• Responsible Research Conduct: Upholding principles of research integrity by avoiding fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, and other forms of misconduct.

• Transparency and Disclosure: Ensuring that all relevant ethical considerations, approvals, and permissions are clearly reported in submitted manuscripts.

• Animal Welfare (if applicable): Although research involving animals is uncommon within Accesso Journal's scope, if any submitted work involves animals, it must adhere to strict ethical guidelines for animal care and use.

• Journal Ethical Practices: Accesso Journal itself is committed to ethical practices in its operations, including its business and marketing activities, ensuring that editorial decisions are based solely on scientific merit.

Policy

• Compliance with Ethical Standards: All research submitted to Accesso Journal must have been conducted in full accordance with relevant national, local, and international ethical guidelines and legal regulations. Authors are responsible for ensuring such compliance.

• Research Involving Human Subjects:

• Consent to Participate: For all research involving human participants, informed consent to participate in the study must be obtained from each participant, or from their legal representative (e.g., for individuals unable to provide consent). Authors must confirm that such consent has been obtained and must be prepared to provide documentation if requested by the journal.

• Confidentiality and Anonymity: Authors must take all necessary steps to protect participant confidentiality and anonymity. Identifying information (names, specific job titles if relevant, detailed locations that could identify an individual or small group) should not be included in the manuscript unless essential for scientific purposes and explicit, separate consent for the publication of such information has been obtained from the individual(s) concerned.

• Vulnerable Populations: If the research involves individuals or groups who may be considered vulnerable (e.g., employees in unsafe working conditions, individuals with disabilities in workplace studies, economically disadvantaged groups), authors must provide clear justification for their inclusion and describe the additional measures taken to protect their rights, welfare, and privacy, and to minimize potential risks or coercion.

• Ethics Committee/Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval: Research involving human subjects must generally be reviewed and approved (or granted an exemption) by an independent ethics committee or authorized Institutional Review Board (IRB) before the research begins. Authors should state the name of the ethics committee/IRB that approved the study in their manuscript and provide the approval number or identifier if available. If ethical approval was deemed unnecessary or waived by the ethics committee/IRB, a clear justification for this, citing relevant local regulations or institutional policies, must be provided.

• Research Involving Animals (if any):

• In the rare event that research submitted to Accesso Journal involves animals, it must comply with institutional and national guidelines on the ethical care and use of laboratory or other animals. Evidence of approval from a competent animal ethics committee must be provided.

• Organizational Data Privacy, Security, and Confidentiality:

• Authors must ensure that all data, especially personal data or sensitive/proprietary data from organizations, is handled, stored, and reported in a manner that respects privacy and confidentiality and complies with applicable data protection laws and regulations.

• Appropriate measures, such as data anonymization or de-identification, should be applied when reporting sensitive data. If data cannot be adequately de-identified, this should be addressed through explicit consent for publication or by restricting data sharing.

• For research involving specific organizations (e.g., case studies), authors must confirm that they have obtained the necessary permissions from the organization to conduct and publish the study, especially if proprietary or confidential information is included.

• Consent for Publication of Identifiable Information:

• In addition to consent to participate in the research, separate and explicit consent for publication must be obtained if the manuscript contains personally identifiable information (including images, detailed case descriptions, or verbatim quotes that might identify a person). This also applies to corporate identifiable information if relevant. Accesso Journal may require authors to provide evidence of such consent for publication.

• Responsible Research Conduct:

• Accesso Journal expects all authors to have conducted their research with integrity, adhering to established principles of responsible research conduct, and to have avoided all forms of misconduct as detailed in the "Accesso Journal Policy on Suspected Violations".

• Journal Ethical Business Practices:

• Accesso Journal is committed to maintaining ethical standards in its publishing operations. Editorial decisions are based solely on the scientific merit of the manuscript, relevance to the journal's scope, and adherence to ethical standards, without influence from commercial, advertising, or marketing considerations.

Technical Measures to Archive and Implement the Policy

• Ethical Statement in the Manuscript:

  • Confirmation that informed consent was obtained from all human participants (if applicable), and how (e.g., written, oral).

  • The name of the ethics committee or Institutional Review Board (IRB) that approved the study (or granted an exemption), along with the relevant approval number or identifier. If ethical approval was not required by local law or institutional policy for the type of study conducted, a clear justification must be provided.

  • Confirmation of compliance with relevant data protection and privacy regulations.

  • Details regarding consent for the publication of identifiable personal or organizational information, images, or case details.

  • For research involving vulnerable populations, a description of the safeguards applied.

• Authors are required to include a dedicated section on "Ethical Considerations" or "Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate" in the submitted manuscript. This section should provide a clear statement regarding:

• Documentation and Verification by Accesso Journal:

• Accesso Journal reserves the right to request authors to provide supporting documentation regarding ethical approvals (e.g., copies of IRB approval letters) or consent forms (appropriately anonymized to protect participant privacy).

• If concerns or ambiguities arise, Accesso Journal may contact the designated ethics committee or IRB to verify the information provided by the authors.

• Role of Peer Reviewers and Editors:

• Peer reviewers and editors are expected to be alert to potential ethical issues in submitted manuscripts. If concerns arise, they should report them to the Editor-in-Chief.

• Editors will evaluate the ethical statements provided by authors and the overall ethical conduct of the research as part of the manuscript assessment process. Manuscripts failing to meet Accesso Journal's ethical standards will not be accepted for publication.

• Handling Ethical Issues and Violations:

• Any ethical issues or suspected violations identified either before or after publication will be thoroughly investigated by Accesso Journal in accordance with the "Policy on Suspected Violations" and relevant COPE guidelines.

• Depending on the severity of the ethical breach, actions may range from requesting clarification and corrections from the authors, contacting the authors' home institutions, or, in serious cases, issuing an Expression of Concern or retracting the published article.

• Guidance for Authors:

• Accesso Journal's "Instructions for Authors" will provide specific guidance on the information required for the ethical statement.

• Authors are strongly encouraged to consult relevant national and international ethical guidelines (e.g., the Declaration of Helsinki for research involving humans, although its primary focus is clinical, the principles of informed consent and risk minimization apply broadly) and their own institutional and funder requirements before commencing their research.

• Case Studies and Research within Organizations:

• For case studies or research conducted within specific organizations, authors must confirm that they have obtained all necessary permissions and consents from the participating organization to conduct the research and publish its findings. This includes permission to use any organizational data or to identify the organization if it is not anonymized. Confidentiality agreements must be respected.

This Ethical Oversight Policy is an integral part of Accesso Journal's commitment to responsible and trustworthy research. Authors are encouraged to carefully consider all ethical aspects of their research, from inception through to publication.