Ethics committee approval

When is it required?

Obtain and document ethics approval when the study involves:

• Human participants (experiments, observation, clinical work)
• Surveys, interviews, focus groups, or similar data collection
• Identifiable personal data
• Research involving animals

When is it not required?

Pure literature reviews and conceptual papers usually do not need approval. The journal's ethics policy may still ask for a short statement — follow that page if it does.

What to do at submission

If approval is not needed, say so and continue. If it is needed, upload the document and enter the institution, committee, decision date, and number. These details appear as a generated sentence on the published article.

If you are not sure whether your study needs approval, ask at [email protected] before submitting.