Avloryn PublicationsResearch ethics — human participants, sites and safety
Research involving people
Where a study involves human participants — surveys, interviews, observation of behaviour, or collection of personal data — the paper must state:
- That informed consent was obtained from participants, and how (written, or verbal with an explanation of why written consent was not feasible);
- The name of the ethics committee or institutional review board that approved the study, with the approval reference where one exists;
- Where participants were minors or otherwise unable to consent, that consent came from a parent or legal guardian.
Where a study collected no identifying information and posed no risk — an anonymous count of vehicles, say — say so, and no approval is needed. The requirement is a statement, not a certificate: we ask authors to be explicit, not to prove.
Construction workers deserve particular care. Research on site labour often involves people in a dependent employment relationship with the person requesting their participation. Consent given to an employer is not freely given. Where a study involves workers, the paper should say how that was handled.
Sites, structures and data that belong to someone else
Civil engineering studies real assets that belong to clients, contractors and public authorities.
- Where a paper reports on a named structure, project or site, the authors must confirm they have
permission to publish that data.
- Where permission covers the data but not the name, the asset may be described without identifying it
— "a four-lane highway in western India" — and the paper should say why.
- Safety-critical findings — a defect that could endanger people — must be disclosed to the asset
owner before publication. We will not publish a finding of that kind that has been kept from the people responsible for the structure.
Field safety
Where fieldwork involved risk to the researchers or others, the paper should state that appropriate safety procedures were followed. We do not require documentation; we require the statement.
What happens if it is missing
The handling editor asks for the statement before review proceeds. If a paper is already in review and the question arises, review continues while the statement is obtained. A paper is not declined for failing to include a statement it could truthfully make — it is declined only if the underlying approval or permission does not exist.