Ethical Oversight and Human-Participant Research Policy

General Principle

Research published by the Dyal Singh Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (DSJHSS) must respect applicable ethical standards, participant rights, privacy, confidentiality and legal requirements.

Because the journal covers diverse humanities and social-science disciplines, the form of ethical oversight required depends on the research design, institution, jurisdiction and level of risk.

Research Involving Human Participants

For research involving human participants, authors must obtain approval from an appropriate institutional ethics committee, research ethics board or equivalent body where such approval is required.

Where formal ethical approval was required, the manuscript should identify the approving body and relevant approval information.

Research involving interviews, surveys, experiments, observations, interventions, minors, vulnerable groups, sensitive personal information or identifiable private records may require ethical review and appropriate consent depending on the context.

Informed Consent

Authors are responsible for obtaining informed consent where required for participation, recording, use of personal information, quotation of identifiable material, or publication of identifiable information.

Consent procedures should be proportionate to the research context and consistent with applicable institutional and legal requirements.

Privacy and Anonymity

Authors should minimise unnecessary disclosure of personal or identifying information. Pseudonymisation or anonymisation should be used where appropriate.

Identifiable participant information should not be published merely because it is interesting or illustrative. Where identification is necessary for the scholarly purpose, authors must ensure that publication is ethically and legally justified and that appropriate permission has been obtained where required.

Research Not Normally Requiring Formal Ethics Approval

Purely textual, literary, philosophical, historical or theoretical scholarship may not require institutional ethics approval. Similarly, analysis of lawfully available public documents, published texts or genuinely public archival material may not require formal review, depending on institutional rules and the sensitivity of the material.

Authors remain responsible for respecting copyright, archival restrictions, cultural sensitivities, privacy and other applicable obligations.

When Approval Was Not Required

Where a manuscript involves human-related data but formal ethics approval was not required, the journal may ask the author to explain the basis for that determination.

Clinical Case Reports

DSJHSS does not publish clinical or medical case reports or case series.

Editorial Action

The journal may request ethical documentation or clarification at any stage. A manuscript may be rejected, or post-publication action taken, if material ethical requirements were ignored or misrepresented.