Ethical Clearance

Ethical Clearance and Research Involving Human Participants

Language, Technology, and Social Media (LTSM) requires research to be conducted and reported in accordance with applicable ethical, institutional, disciplinary, and legal standards. Ethical requirements depend on the nature of the research; therefore, formal ethical approval is required where applicable, rather than automatically for every manuscript.

Not every manuscript requires ethics-committee approval. Requirements depend on the study design, participants, data source, jurisdiction, institutional rules, and level of ethical risk. Authors must nevertheless describe relevant ethical considerations transparently and provide documentation when requested by the editorial office.

When Is Ethical Clearance Relevant?

1. Scope of This Policy

This policy applies to research submitted to LTSM where ethical considerations arise from the involvement of:

• human participants;
• personal or identifiable information;
• interviews, surveys, focus groups, experiments, or observations;
• children, minors, or other potentially vulnerable individuals or communities;
• health, disability, speech, hearing, psychological, educational, biometric, or other sensitive information;
• social-media users, online communities, digital traces, or platform-generated data;
• recordings, photographs, screenshots, voices, videos, or other potentially identifying materials;
• secondary or archived data subject to ethical, confidentiality, or access restrictions;
• non-human animals; or
• any other research activity requiring ethical or regulatory oversight.

The absence of formal ethics-review requirements does not remove the author's responsibility to conduct research responsibly and to minimise foreseeable harm.

2. Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving human participants must comply with relevant institutional, national, disciplinary, and legal requirements.

Where formal ethical review is required, authors should obtain approval from an appropriately constituted ethics committee, institutional review board, or equivalent body before commencing the relevant research activities.

Published manuscripts should state, where applicable:

• the name of the approving ethics committee or institutional review board;
• the approval, protocol, or reference number where available;
• relevant approval information;
• whether informed consent was obtained; and
• any relevant waiver or exemption granted by an authorised body.

3. Studies for Which Formal Ethical Approval Is Not Required

Some forms of research may not require formal ethics-committee approval under applicable institutional or national rules. Examples may include certain literature reviews, conceptual studies, analyses of non-identifiable public documents, or appropriately governed secondary datasets.

The journal does not independently declare a study exempt merely because authors describe the data as public or anonymous.

Where a study involving potentially relevant human or personal data did not undergo formal ethical review, authors should provide a clear statement explaining:

• why formal approval was not required;
• the institutional, legal, disciplinary, or methodological basis for that determination, where relevant;
• whether an exemption or waiver was formally issued, if applicable; and
• what safeguards were used to protect individuals, communities, privacy, and confidentiality.

The editorial team may request additional clarification or documentation if the ethical basis of a study is unclear.

4. Informed Consent

Informed consent should be obtained where required and should be appropriate to the study design, participant population, cultural context, applicable regulations, and level of research risk.

Participants should ordinarily receive sufficient information to understand:

• the purpose and nature of the research;
• what participation involves;
• foreseeable risks or burdens;
• how information will be collected, stored, used, and reported;
• whether participation is voluntary;
• applicable rights to decline participation or withdraw; and
• relevant limitations to confidentiality or withdrawal where applicable.

When an authorised ethics body has approved a waiver or modification of informed consent, this should be reported transparently where relevant.

5. Consent for Publication and Identifiable Material

Consent to participate in research is not always equivalent to consent for publication of identifiable information.

Where a manuscript contains information through which an individual could reasonably be identified, authors must obtain appropriate consent for publication unless another lawful and ethically appropriate basis clearly applies.

Potentially identifiable material may include:

• names or personal identifiers;
• recognisable photographs or videos;
• voice recordings;
• screenshots containing usernames, profile photographs, or account information;
• verbatim quotations that can readily be traced to an identifiable person;
• rare demographic or contextual combinations; and
• case descriptions containing sufficient information for re-identification.

Authors should remove non-essential identifying information whenever possible.

6. Privacy, Anonymity, and Confidentiality

Authors must take reasonable measures to protect participant privacy and confidentiality throughout data collection, analysis, storage, publication, and data sharing.

Anonymisation and pseudonymisation should be appropriate to the nature of the data. Authors should consider whether combinations of quotations, demographic details, usernames, locations, dates, photographs, recordings, or contextual information could allow participants to be re-identified.

Data should not be described as anonymous when individuals remain reasonably identifiable from the information provided.

7. Social Media, Digital Platforms, and Online Data

Because LTSM publishes research on digital discourse, social media, online communication, artificial intelligence, and language technologies, particular attention should be given to the ethical use of online data.

Authors conducting online research should consider, where relevant:

• whether users reasonably expected their communication to be public or private;
• whether the platform or online space is open, restricted, closed, or membership-based;
• whether usernames or quotations can be searched and traced back to individuals;
• whether the data concern sensitive topics or vulnerable communities;
• whether direct quotation creates unnecessary re-identification risks;
• whether consent or ethical review is required under applicable institutional standards;
• whether platform terms, data-access agreements, or relevant legal requirements apply; and
• whether publication could reasonably create harm disproportionate to the scholarly benefit.

Where appropriate, authors should paraphrase, aggregate, mask, or otherwise de-identify online content unless the exact form of the data is essential to the research and its use is ethically justified.

8. Children and Vulnerable Participants

Research involving children, minors, persons with impaired decision-making capacity, or other individuals or communities who may be particularly susceptible to coercion, exploitation, stigma, discrimination, or harm requires appropriate additional safeguards.

Where relevant, safeguards may include:

• permission from a parent, legal guardian, or other authorised person;
• age- and capacity-appropriate participant assent;
• enhanced privacy and confidentiality protections;
• procedures designed to minimise coercion or undue influence;
• careful assessment of research risks and benefits; and
• appropriate ethical or institutional oversight.

Researchers should avoid assuming that a population is vulnerable solely on the basis of a broad social category; safeguards should respond to the actual research context and risks involved.

9. Voluntary Participation and Avoidance of Coercion

Participation in research should be voluntary where informed consent is applicable. Recruitment procedures, incentives, authority relationships, and institutional settings should not exert inappropriate pressure on potential participants.

Particular care is required where researchers recruit their own students, employees, subordinates, patients, or others with whom a significant power imbalance exists.

10. Secondary Data, Existing Corpora, and Archived Material

Authors using existing datasets, linguistic corpora, archives, recordings, institutional records, platform data, or repositories must respect the terms under which the material was originally collected and made available.

Authors should consider:

• the original consent and intended uses of the data;
• data-use licences and repository conditions;
• confidentiality and privacy restrictions;
• whether the data remain identifiable or can reasonably be re-identified;
• whether new analysis introduces risks not reasonably anticipated during original collection; and
• whether additional ethical review is required by the author's institution or applicable rules.

Appropriate citation of a dataset does not, by itself, authorise reuse where separate ethical, contractual, privacy, or legal restrictions apply.

11. Audio, Speech, Image, and Video Data

Research involving speech recordings, voice samples, photographs, video, biometric information, or other potentially identifiable media must provide appropriate safeguards for collection, storage, analysis, presentation, and sharing.

Where audio or visual data are made available as supplementary material or deposited in a repository, authors must ensure that the applicable consent and ethical permissions extend to that form of dissemination.

Alteration or de-identification of audio, images, or video must not distort the scientific meaning of the evidence.

12. Sensitive Research and Potential Harm

Studies involving sensitive personal, cultural, health, educational, political, social, disability-related, or community information should be designed and reported with particular attention to foreseeable harms.

Authors should avoid unnecessary disclosure that could lead to identification, stigma, discrimination, reputational harm, security risks, or adverse consequences for participants or communities.

Ethical reporting also requires care in terminology, interpretation, and representation, particularly where research concerns historically marginalised or vulnerable groups.

13. Research Involving Non-Human Animals

Although animal research is not a principal focus of LTSM, any submitted study involving non-human animals must comply with relevant institutional and national standards for animal welfare and research ethics.

Authors must report the responsible approving body and approval information where such approval is required.

14. Ethical Documentation

Authors are responsible for maintaining appropriate records supporting their ethical declarations.

The editorial office may request:

• ethics-committee or institutional-review approval;
• approval or protocol numbers;
• formal exemption or waiver documentation;
• participant information or consent procedures;
• consent-for-publication documentation;
• data-access authorisation;
• permission to use restricted materials; or
• other information reasonably necessary to verify ethical compliance.

Authors should not ordinarily submit identifiable participant consent forms with the initial manuscript unless specifically requested. Such records should be securely retained in accordance with applicable institutional and legal requirements.

15. Ethical Statements in the Manuscript

Where relevant, the final manuscript should contain an Ethical Approval or equivalent statement.

16. Editorial Assessment of Ethical Compliance

Ethics-committee approval does not prevent editors from independently considering whether the research appears to have been conducted and reported responsibly.

Where ethical concerns arise, LTSM may:

• request clarification from the authors;
• request supporting documentation;
• seek confidential advice from an independent expert;
• suspend editorial processing while concerns are assessed;
• contact an ethics committee, institution, research-integrity office, or other competent body where appropriate;
• reject a manuscript when significant ethical requirements have not been met; or
• take appropriate post-publication action where ethical problems are discovered after publication.

Editorial decisions will consider the seriousness of the concern, the evidence available, applicable standards, and the effect of the issue on participant protection and the reliability of the scholarly record.

17. Retrospective Ethical Approval

Authors should not assume that ethical approval can be obtained retrospectively after research requiring prior approval has already been conducted.

Where applicable approval was not obtained before the research began, authors must disclose this transparently. The editorial team will evaluate the circumstances and may decline the manuscript when the absence of appropriate prospective oversight represents a material ethical deficiency.

18. Respectful and Responsible Reporting

Research should be reported accurately and respectfully. Descriptions of participants and communities should use scientifically appropriate terminology and avoid unnecessary stereotyping, stigmatisation, dehumanisation, or discriminatory framing.

Participant characteristics should be reported when scientifically relevant to the study and interpreted in a manner proportionate to the evidence.

19. Standards Informing This Policy

LTSM's approach to ethical oversight is informed by internationally recognised principles of responsible research and scholarly publishing, including the ethical-oversight principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) .

For research involving human participants in health-related contexts, authors should also observe relevant research-participant protection standards and requirements applicable to their study and jurisdiction.

Reference to external standards indicates frameworks informing journal policy and does not, by itself, constitute a claim of membership in the organisations concerned.

Supporting Editorial and Research-Integrity Policies

This policy should be read together with the journal's related editorial policies.

20. Questions or Ethical Concerns

Authors who are uncertain about the ethical documentation required for a particular study may contact the editorial office before or during submission. Concerns regarding the ethical conduct of submitted or published research may also be reported to the journal.

LTSM does not apply ethical-clearance requirements mechanically to every type of manuscript. Instead, the journal expects ethical safeguards, approval, consent, transparency, and documentation to be appropriate to the research design, participants, data, risks, institutional requirements, and applicable standards.