Ethical Oversight Policy

Social Sciences Journal (SSJ)  |  e-ISSN 3047-7646

This policy is informed by the current Guidelines for Research Ethics in the Social Sciences and the Humanities, issued by the Norwegian National Committee for Research Ethics in the Social Sciences and the Humanities (NESH), and by the COPE principles on ethical oversight. It should be read together with the journal's Publication Ethics Policy, Privacy Statement, and other editorial policies.

1. Scope

This policy applies to all submissions involving people, identifiable personal information, organizations, communities, online users, social-media content, administrative or archival records, culturally sensitive materials, or other data for which ethical interests may arise. It applies to quantitative, qualitative, mixed-method, historical, legal, linguistic, educational, psychological, economic, and other social-science research, including secondary analysis and research conducted online.

Compliance with this policy does not replace approval by a research ethics committee, institutional review board, data-protection authority, community body, or other competent institution where such review is required.

2. Ethics Review and Approval

Before data collection begins, authors must determine whether independent ethics review is required under applicable law, institutional policy, funder requirements, disciplinary standards, or the conditions governing access to the research setting or data. When approval is required, it must be obtained prospectively from a competent and independent body.

3. Informed Consent and Voluntary Participation

• Consent must be voluntary, informed, specific enough for the proposed research, and obtained before participation unless a competent body has approved a justified alteration or waiver.
• Information provided to participants should explain the research purpose, procedures, expected duration, foreseeable risks and benefits, data use, confidentiality limits, recording methods, compensation, researcher identity, contact route, and the right to decline or withdraw without improper disadvantage.
• Consent should be documented in writing or by another appropriate and auditable method. Oral consent may be appropriate when written consent creates risk, is culturally unsuitable, or is impracticable; the reason and documentation method must be stated.
• Translation, accessible formats, and sufficient time for questions must be provided when needed to support meaningful understanding.
• Payments, benefits, authority relationships, or institutional dependence must not create coercion or undue influence.

Consent for Publication

Consent to participate does not automatically constitute consent to publish identifiable information. Authors must obtain specific consent for publication of names, recognizable images, audio, video, detailed case narratives, quotations, or combinations of indirect identifiers that could reasonably identify a person. Identifying details should be removed unless they are essential to the scholarly purpose and publication consent has been obtained.

4. Children and Other Vulnerable Participants

Research involving children, persons with impaired decision-making capacity, economically or socially marginalized groups, displaced persons, persons in dependent relationships, or populations exposed to legal, political, cultural, or security risks requires heightened justification and safeguards.

• Recruitment must be fair and must not exploit vulnerability, dependency, or limited access to alternatives.
• Permission from a parent, guardian, or legally authorized representative must be obtained where required, together with the participant's assent whenever the participant can meaningfully provide it.
• A participant's dissent must be respected even when permission has been provided by another person, unless an exceptional lawful basis has been approved.
• Risk mitigation, referral arrangements, safeguarding procedures, and privacy protections must be proportionate to the population and setting.
• Exclusion of vulnerable groups should also be justified when it unfairly denies them the potential benefits or relevance of research.

5. Privacy, Confidentiality, and Data Protection

Authors must collect only data necessary for the stated research purpose and must implement proportionate safeguards throughout collection, access, analysis, storage, sharing, archiving, and disposal. Applicable personal-data legislation, including Indonesian requirements where relevant, must be observed.

Anonymity must not be promised when it cannot realistically be maintained. Where data are deposited in a repository, authors must ensure that consent, ethics approval, access conditions, licenses, and de-identification are compatible with that deposit. The journal may request a controlled-access arrangement when public release would create an unacceptable risk.

6. Online, Social-Media, and Digital Research

Information being technically accessible online does not automatically make unrestricted research use or verbatim publication ethically acceptable. Authors must consider users' reasonable expectations of privacy, platform terms, sensitivity, identifiability, audience, permanence, group harm, and the distinction between public, semi-public, and private spaces.

• Direct quotations should be paraphrased or otherwise protected when search engines could reveal the author's identity and consent for identifiable quotation has not been obtained.
• Automated collection, scraping, linking of datasets, geolocation, facial recognition, and profiling require specific ethical and legal assessment.
• Researchers must not create deceptive identities, bypass access controls, or enter private groups without appropriate authorization and ethical justification.
• Research involving artificial intelligence, automated classification, or algorithmic decision systems must address bias, explainability, data provenance, privacy, and potential individual or group harms.

7. Communities, Culture, and Collective Interests

Research may affect communities and groups even when individual participants cannot be identified. Authors must consider collective reputation, stigmatization, discrimination, cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, intellectual property, political consequences, and unequal power relations.

Where appropriate, researchers should engage legitimate community representatives, respect local decision-making and cultural protocols, agree on responsible attribution and benefit sharing, and communicate findings in an accessible form. Community authorization does not replace individual consent where individual consent is required, and a gatekeeper must not improperly control participation or suppress legitimate findings.

8. Deception, Covert Research, and Observation

Deception, incomplete disclosure, covert observation, or research without prior consent requires exceptional justification. Authors must demonstrate that the research question cannot reasonably be answered by a less intrusive method, that risks are minimized, that the approach is lawful, and that approval or a formal waiver was obtained from a competent ethics body where required.

Participants should normally be debriefed as soon as this can be done safely and without compromising a justified research purpose. The manuscript must describe the nature of the deception or non-disclosure, the justification, safeguards, approval, debriefing process, and any option provided to withdraw data.

9. Secondary Data, Archives, and Administrative Records

Use of existing data remains subject to ethical assessment. Authors must establish lawful and authorized access; respect consent conditions, licenses, archive restrictions, and cultural protocols; assess whether data linkage or contextual detail creates re-identification risk; and obtain additional approval where the proposed use differs materially from the original purpose. Publicly available data do not automatically eliminate duties relating to privacy, dignity, fairness, or prevention of harm.

10. Researcher Safety, Independence, and Conflicts of Interest

• Research plans should address foreseeable physical, psychological, legal, digital, and reputational risks to participants, researchers, interpreters, fieldworkers, and collaborating organizations.
• Funding, sponsorship, commissioned research, employment relationships, political interests, consultancy, and personal relationships must not compromise research design, access to data, interpretation, or the freedom to publish.
• All relevant financial and non-financial competing interests must be disclosed in the manuscript and to the editor.
• Funders' roles in study design, data collection, analysis, manuscript preparation, and publication decisions must be stated.

11. Animal Research and Other Specialized Materials

Although animal research is not ordinarily within the journal's main scope, any submission involving animals must comply with applicable legislation and recognized discipline-specific welfare standards and must report the approving body and reference number. Research involving human remains, sacred objects, culturally restricted knowledge, or materials of uncertain provenance must demonstrate lawful access, ethical justification, respectful handling, and compliance with relevant community and institutional requirements.

12. Required Ethical Reporting

Authors should not publish information that compromises participant confidentiality merely to demonstrate compliance. Supporting approval documents or blank consent materials may be requested confidentially during editorial assessment and should not contain unnecessary personal data.

13. Editorial Assessment and Action

Ethics approval does not compel the journal to publish a study, and an editor may identify ethical concerns even when approval has been granted. Conversely, low-risk research that was not subject to formal review will not be rejected solely for lacking an approval number when the authors provide a credible and documented explanation consistent with applicable requirements.

Reviewers must treat ethics documents and participant information as confidential. Any editor or reviewer with a relevant conflict of interest must recuse themselves from handling the matter.

14. Reporting Ethical Concerns

Authors, participants, reviewers, readers, institutions, and other stakeholders may confidentially report a concern about participant protection, consent, approval, data use, confidentiality, community harm, conflicts of interest, or other ethical conduct. A report should identify the manuscript or article, describe the concern, and provide supporting information where available. Good-faith reports will be assessed without retaliation.

The journal follows proportionate procedures consistent with its Publication Ethics Policy and Appeals and Complaints Policy. The person whose work or conduct is questioned will normally be given an opportunity to respond, subject to confidentiality, safety, legal, and research-integrity considerations.