Ethical Standards in Social Science Publications

With a rise in unethical conduct in research across social science disciplines, there is clearly an issue with the approaches and understanding of requirements to meet ethical standards of research. Peer-reviewed journals rely on establishing and developing quality literature that scholars, practitioners, and policy makers can use for the benefit of humanity. Journals in higher education practice and policy aim to provide a forum for educational practitioners in a wide range of disciplines to communicate their teaching and learning innovations and outcomes in a scholarly way. For publication of research, particularly that which involves human participants, journal editors must set clear expectations and guidance for authors to adhere to recognised ethical standards, practices, and laws. Authors must declare that they have met the required standards, ensuring that independent ethical scrutiny for their study has been carried out before embarking on data collection, that the study was conducted with prior scrutiny to the methods and potential risk to participants, and that all participants were fully informed before giving their voluntary consent to the appropriate use of their data. Submitted manuscripts that do not meet these standards and expectations must therefore be rejected. This commentary offers guidance for social sciences authors, reviewers, and editors to follow, and outlines practices that should be adopted to ensure published articles meet ethical standards.