The International Journal of Humanities, Arts, Commerce and Social Sciences (IJHACSS) is committed to safeguarding the rights, dignity, privacy, autonomy, safety, and well-being of individuals and communities involved in academic research.

Research in the humanities, arts, commerce, and social sciences contributes to our understanding of human behaviour, cultural expression, historical experiences, educational systems, economic activities, social institutions, and contemporary challenges.

Such research frequently involves direct or indirect engagement with individuals and communities whose experiences, knowledge, opinions, and personal information contribute to scholarly understanding.

IJHACSS recognizes that the pursuit of academic knowledge must be accompanied by ethical responsibility. The generation and dissemination of research findings should never unnecessarily compromise the dignity, safety, privacy, or legitimate interests of research participants.

The journal therefore expects authors to conduct and report research according to applicable ethical standards, institutional requirements, and relevant national or international regulations.

The fundamental principle of this policy is that the rights and well-being of research participants must take precedence over the interests of research publication.

IJHACSS supports academic freedom and methodological diversity while requiring researchers to demonstrate respect, fairness, transparency, and accountability throughout the research process.

This policy applies to manuscripts involving human participants, identifiable individuals, communities, or information obtained from or about people.

It is particularly relevant to research involving:

• Interviews and focus-group discussions.
• Surveys and questionnaires.
• Psychological and behavioural investigations.
• Educational and classroom-based studies.
• Ethnographic and anthropological fieldwork.
• Community-based and participatory research.
• Sociological and political investigations.
• Oral histories and personal narratives.
• Workplace and organizational studies.
• Consumer behaviour and market research.
• Digital ethnography and social media research.
• Photography, documentary films, and audiovisual recordings.
• Research involving children or vulnerable individuals.
• Studies using confidential institutional or personal records.
• Cultural and indigenous knowledge systems.

The policy also applies to research involving secondary data where identifiable information, confidentiality obligations, or other participant-related ethical concerns arise.

Not every humanities or social sciences study requires direct participant recruitment. The ethical requirements applicable to a manuscript should reflect its actual research methods, data sources, and foreseeable risks.

IJHACSS expects research involving individuals and communities to follow fundamental ethical principles.

Respect for Human Dignity

Every participant must be treated with respect, irrespective of nationality, gender, age, religion, language, cultural background, socioeconomic status, disability, political opinion, or other personal characteristics.

Voluntary Participation

Participation should be voluntary and based on an informed decision, except where an appropriately reviewed research design and applicable law permit another approach.

Informed Consent

Participants should receive sufficient information to understand the purpose, nature, potential consequences, and intended uses of the research.

Minimization of Harm

Researchers must identify foreseeable risks and take reasonable steps to prevent unnecessary physical, psychological, social, professional, economic, or legal harm.

Privacy and Confidentiality

Personal information must be handled responsibly and protected according to applicable ethical and legal requirements.

Justice and Fairness

Participant selection should be fair and academically justified. Researchers should avoid exploitative recruitment practices and unreasonable concentration of research burdens on disadvantaged groups.

Integrity and Transparency

Research procedures, data collection, interpretation, and presentation must be accurate and honest.

Respect for Communities

Researchers should recognize the social, cultural, historical, and institutional contexts in which research is conducted.

These principles should guide ethical decisions throughout the research lifecycle, from planning and recruitment to analysis, publication, and data preservation.

Research involving human participants must comply with the ethical review requirements applicable to the research institution, discipline, and jurisdiction.

Where Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC), Institutional Review Board (IRB), Research Ethics Committee (REC), or equivalent approval is required, authors must obtain the necessary authorization before commencing the relevant research activities.

The manuscript should identify:

1. The name of the approving ethics committee or institution.
2. The approval or reference number, where issued.
3. The date of approval, where applicable.
4. Relevant conditions or limitations associated with the approval.

Research Not Requiring Formal Approval

IJHACSS recognizes that some activities, such as certain forms of textual analysis, publicly accessible archival research, theoretical scholarship, and low-risk studies, may not require formal ethics committee approval under the applicable institutional framework.

Authors should not assume that a study is exempt merely because it is qualitative, observational, online, or non-medical.

Where formal review was not required, authors should provide a statement explaining the relevant institutional policy, documented exemption, or other applicable ethical basis.

Absence of formal ethics committee approval does not remove the researcher's responsibility to conduct the study ethically.

The editorial office may request clarification or supporting documentation where necessary.

Informed consent is a central requirement of responsible human-participant research.

Before participating, individuals should receive clear, understandable, and relevant information about the research.

Information Provided to Participants

Depending on the study, participants should be informed about:

• The purpose and objectives of the research.
• The identity or affiliation of the researchers.
• The nature of their expected participation.
• The types of questions or activities involved.
• The approximate duration of participation.
• Any reasonably foreseeable risks or discomfort.
• Potential benefits, if any.
• Whether participation is voluntary.
• Their ability to decline questions or withdraw.
• How personal information and recordings will be handled.
• Whether identifiable information may be published.
• Whether research data may be archived or shared.
• Relevant confidentiality limitations.
• How to contact the researchers about questions or concerns.

Information should be communicated in a language and form that participants can reasonably understand.

Forms of Consent

Written consent is generally recommended when appropriate.

However, verbal, recorded, electronic, or other documented consent procedures may be acceptable when permitted by the applicable ethical framework and suitable for the research context.

For example, oral consent may be appropriate for certain community-based or oral-history projects where written documentation would be culturally inappropriate or create unnecessary risks.

Researchers must be able to explain and document how valid consent was obtained.

Consent as an Ongoing Process

Consent should not be regarded merely as a signature collected at the beginning of a study.

For extended fieldwork, longitudinal interviews, or research involving evolving methods, researchers should remain attentive to changes in participants' understanding, preferences, and circumstances.

Additional consent may be necessary when the research purpose or intended use of participant information changes substantially.

Participation in research should ordinarily be voluntary.

Individuals must not be subjected to inappropriate pressure, intimidation, deception, or coercion to participate.

Participants should be able to decline participation without unreasonable adverse consequences.

Researchers should explain whether and when participants may withdraw and whether previously collected information can be removed.

Withdrawal of Participation

Where feasible and consistent with the approved research design, participants should have the opportunity to withdraw before a clearly communicated stage of analysis, anonymization, aggregation, or publication.

Withdrawal may not always permit the removal of information that has already been irreversibly anonymized, combined with other data, lawfully archived, or published.

Such limitations should be explained during the consent process.

Avoiding Undue Influence

Particular care is required where researchers have authority over potential participants.

Examples include:

• Teachers conducting research involving their students.
• Employers studying their employees.
• Supervisors involving research assistants or subordinates.
• Institutional administrators recruiting staff.
• Researchers working with economically dependent communities.

Participation must not become an implicit condition for academic assessment, employment benefits, professional advancement, or access to essential services.

IJHACSS recognizes that participants may provide information concerning their personal lives, relationships, education, employment, beliefs, economic circumstances, or social experiences.

Researchers must protect confidential information and minimize unnecessary disclosure.

Personal Identifiers

Authors should avoid including unnecessary identifying information such as:

• Full names.
• Residential addresses.
• Personal telephone numbers.
• Email addresses.
• Identification numbers.
• Exact workplace details.
• Personal photographs.
• Other identifying or traceable information.

Anonymization and Pseudonymization

Researchers may use anonymization, pseudonyms, participant codes, or aggregation when appropriate.

However, removing a person's name does not always ensure anonymity.

A combination of age, occupation, geographical location, personal history, and institutional affiliation may allow a participant to be identified.

Researchers should evaluate such indirect identification risks.

Confidential Records

Unpublished interview transcripts, questionnaires, personnel files, institutional records, and confidential research documents should not be publicly disclosed without appropriate authorization.

Access should be restricted to individuals who have a legitimate research responsibility.

Limits to Confidentiality

Researchers should explain foreseeable limits to confidentiality, including circumstances in which disclosure may be legally required or necessary to address a serious and imminent risk of harm.

Confidentiality promises must not exceed what researchers can lawfully and practically provide.

Some research participants may face heightened vulnerability because of age, disability, dependency, social disadvantage, institutional circumstances, trauma, or other contextual factors.

Vulnerability should be evaluated in relation to the particular research setting rather than assumed solely from membership of a social group.

Research involving potentially vulnerable individuals requires appropriate additional safeguards.

These may include:

• Age-appropriate or accessible information.
• Enhanced consent procedures.
• Independent recruitment arrangements.
• Additional privacy protections.
• Referral or support procedures for distress.
• Careful consideration of power imbalances.
• Reduced collection of unnecessary personal data.
• Appropriate institutional or ethics committee oversight.

Researchers should not exclude vulnerable groups automatically when their participation is academically important and can be ethically supported.

At the same time, potential research benefits must not be used to justify avoidable harm or exploitative participation.

Studies involving children, school pupils, or students require particular ethical care.

Educational research may examine learning outcomes, classroom behaviour, teaching practices, academic performance, technology use, or student experiences.

Research Involving Minors

Where participants are minors, researchers must comply with applicable requirements concerning parental or guardian permission and the child's assent.

Information should be presented in a form appropriate to the child's age, maturity, and understanding.

A child's refusal or expression of unwillingness should be respected in accordance with the approved research protocol and applicable ethical standards.

Classroom-Based Research

Teachers and researchers must recognize the power imbalance between educators and students.

Student participation should not be improperly connected to grades, attendance, examination outcomes, or educational opportunities.

Where feasible, recruitment and consent procedures should reduce the possibility that students feel pressured to participate.

Educational Records

Academic performance, attendance records, disciplinary records, and personal student information must be handled confidentially.

Institutional authorization to access records does not automatically authorize unrestricted publication of identifiable student information.

Research in psychology and behavioural studies may involve personal attitudes, emotional experiences, mental well-being, relationships, identity, or other potentially sensitive information.

Researchers must consider whether participation could lead to distress, discomfort, embarrassment, or other adverse consequences.

Psychological Risk Assessment

The research design should identify foreseeable psychological risks and explain suitable safeguards.

Participants should not be exposed to unnecessary distress merely to obtain research data.

Sensitive Questions

Questions about traumatic experiences, violence, discrimination, mental health, or other difficult matters should be approached carefully.

Participants should be informed about the nature of sensitive questions where appropriate and allowed to decline responding without undue pressure.

Debriefing

Where warranted by the methodology, participants should receive an appropriate explanation following their participation.

Research involving deception or incomplete disclosure must be justified, consistent with applicable ethical approval, and accompanied by appropriate safeguards.

Support and Referral

Where research involves a foreseeable possibility of significant distress, researchers should establish a suitable plan for responding to participant needs within the limits of their professional competence.

IJHACSS welcomes qualitative research as an important means of understanding human experiences, cultural practices, social relationships, and institutional processes.

Qualitative research often generates detailed accounts that may contain sensitive or identifying information.

Interview Research

Participants should understand the general subject, purpose, and intended use of interviews.

Permission should be obtained before making audio or video recordings when required.

Researchers should respect any agreed limits on attribution, confidentiality, or use of particular statements.

Focus-Group Research

Focus-group discussions present distinct confidentiality challenges because several participants hear one another's responses.

Researchers should explain that they can request confidentiality from group members but cannot guarantee that other participants will maintain it.

Sensitive topics should be managed with appropriate care.

Presentation of Participant Quotations

Direct quotations may be necessary to demonstrate analytical findings.

Authors should ensure that quoted material is accurate and used in a manner consistent with the consent and confidentiality arrangements.

Names or other identifying details should be removed or modified when necessary and ethically appropriate.

Authors must not alter quotations in ways that materially distort the participant's intended meaning.

Ethnographic research often involves prolonged engagement with individuals, communities, households, or social groups.

Researchers may observe everyday practices, cultural activities, institutional interactions, and informal social relationships.

Such work requires sensitivity to context, trust, power dynamics, and changing circumstances.

Community Engagement

Researchers should communicate their research intentions honestly and respect applicable community protocols.

Participant Observation

The ethical requirements for observation depend on the setting, the reasonable expectations of privacy, the research design, and applicable laws.

Observation in a publicly accessible setting does not automatically eliminate all ethical concerns.

Representation of Communities

Authors should avoid unnecessary stereotyping, misleading generalizations, or selective reporting that distorts community experiences.

Researchers should distinguish observed evidence, participant accounts, and their own interpretations.

Researcher Positionality

Where relevant, authors should reflect on how their social position, institutional role, assumptions, and relationships with participants may influence the research.

Oral-history research plays an important role in preserving lived experiences, collective memories, cultural traditions, and historical knowledge.

IJHACSS recognizes that oral histories may differ from conventional anonymous survey research because narrators may wish to be publicly identified and acknowledged.

Consent and Attribution

Researchers must explain whether narrators will be identified by name, quoted anonymously, or represented through pseudonyms.

Public attribution should reflect the narrator's informed preferences and the relevant ethical and legal arrangements.

Recording and Preservation

Permission should be obtained for recording interviews where required.

Researchers should explain whether recordings or transcripts may be stored in archives, deposited in repositories, made publicly accessible, or reused in future scholarship.

Sensitive Testimonies

Narratives involving violence, political conflict, displacement, discrimination, family experiences, or other sensitive matters require careful consideration of potential consequences.

Historical Integrity

Researchers should represent narrators' accounts accurately and provide appropriate historical context.

Disagreement with a narrator's perspective does not justify deliberate distortion or selective manipulation of testimony.

Research involving indigenous knowledge, traditional cultural practices, community rituals, oral traditions, local heritage, or culturally restricted materials requires heightened ethical awareness.

Researchers should recognize that cultural knowledge may be subject to community protocols, collective interests, and restrictions that extend beyond ordinary individual consent.

Respect for Cultural Practices

Authors should avoid presenting cultural beliefs or practices through misleading, derogatory, or decontextualized descriptions.

Community Authorization

Where relevant, researchers should obtain appropriate community or institutional permission in addition to individual consent.

Community authorization does not automatically replace individual informed consent when individuals participate directly.

Restricted Knowledge

Sacred, confidential, or culturally restricted knowledge should not be disclosed without appropriate authorization.

Attribution and Intellectual Contributions

The contributions of community members, traditional knowledge holders, interpreters, and collaborators should be recognized appropriately.

Avoiding Exploitation

Researchers should avoid extracting culturally significant information for academic or commercial benefit without responsible consideration of community interests, relevant permissions, and applicable legal obligations.

IJHACSS supports academic freedom and rigorous research concerning religious institutions, political systems, social inequality, historical conflicts, cultural identities, and other contested issues.

Researchers may critically examine beliefs, traditions, policies, and institutions through appropriate scholarly methods.

However, research involving individuals discussing sensitive subjects may create privacy, reputational, social, employment-related, or legal risks.

Authors should consider:

• Whether participants could face retaliation for expressed opinions.
• Whether sensitive affiliations could be inferred from quotations.
• Whether identifiable responses might create social or professional harm.
• Whether the research involves unequal power relationships.
• Whether publication could expose individuals or communities to foreseeable risks.

Where appropriate, researchers should apply stronger confidentiality measures.

Protecting research participants must not be confused with restricting legitimate academic criticism.

The journal supports evidence-based scholarly inquiry while requiring responsible treatment of the people who contribute to that inquiry.

Studies involving employees, organizations, customers, entrepreneurs, consumers, or financial institutions may raise distinct ethical and confidentiality concerns.

Employee Research

Employees must not be improperly pressured to participate by employers, supervisors, or institutional authorities.

Individual responses should not be disclosed to management in ways that violate agreed confidentiality arrangements.

Organizational Studies

Researchers should obtain appropriate authorization when accessing confidential organizational documents, internal reports, or restricted operational information.

Consumer Research

Consumer surveys and behavioural studies must follow applicable requirements concerning consent, privacy, data collection, and transparency.

Financial and Commercial Information

Personal financial data, customer records, confidential business information, and proprietary materials must not be disclosed without an appropriate legal and ethical basis.

Authors should ensure that organizational permission and individual participant consent are treated as distinct requirements where applicable.

Digital platforms provide valuable sources of information for research in media studies, sociology, political science, psychology, marketing, and related fields.

However, online accessibility does not automatically remove ethical obligations.

Public and Private Digital Spaces

Researchers should consider whether online content was shared with a reasonable expectation of privacy.

Material from restricted groups, private messages, password-protected communities, or closed discussion forums may require additional authorization and safeguards.

Online Surveys

Participants should receive appropriate information concerning the research purpose, data collection, consent, and use of their responses.

Social Media Data

Public posts may contain identifying usernames, photographs, location details, or sensitive personal information.

Direct quotations may also be searchable and can reveal participant identity even after a username has been removed.

Researchers should consider whether paraphrasing, aggregation, restricted access, or other protective measures are appropriate.

Digital Security

Research data should be collected, transferred, stored, and processed using security safeguards proportionate to its sensitivity.

Automated Data Collection

Researchers using automated collection methods must comply with applicable law, relevant platform conditions, and ethical requirements.

Humanities and arts research may involve photographs, documentary films, performances, visual recordings, and other multimedia materials.

These may contain identifiable individuals or information about private activities.

Consent for Recording

Researchers must obtain appropriate permission before recording individuals where required.

Consent for Publication

Consent to participate in an interview, performance, or research activity does not necessarily constitute consent to publish identifiable photographs, video, audio, or personal details.

Separate publication authorization may be necessary.

Participants should understand when their material may become permanently accessible online.

Visual Anonymization

Where identities must be protected, authors should consider whether facial blurring, image cropping, pseudonyms, voice alteration, or other protective measures are sufficient.

Minor image alterations, such as covering the eyes, may not prevent identification.

Integrity of Visual Evidence

Modifications intended to protect privacy must not materially misrepresent the research findings.

Copyright and Personal Rights

Permissions relating to identifiable individuals and permissions concerning copyrighted artistic materials must be considered separately.

Some humanities and social sciences research relies entirely on secondary sources, public documents, or existing datasets.

Examples include census reports, government documents, published literature, financial statements, historical archives, and publicly available statistical databases.

Formal individual consent may not be necessary for every use of such materials.

However, authors must consider whether:

• The information contains identifiable living individuals.
• The dataset is subject to access restrictions.
• Confidentiality conditions apply.
• Re-identification is reasonably possible.
• The data were originally collected under restrictions on reuse.
• Publication could create foreseeable harm.
• Ethical review or permission is required by the relevant institution or law.

Public availability should not automatically be treated as unrestricted permission to reproduce sensitive personal information.

Authors should acknowledge data sources and comply with applicable licensing and access conditions.

Researchers should assess potential risks before collecting or analyzing participant-related information.

Risk may include more than physical injury.

In humanities and social sciences research, foreseeable harm may involve:

• Psychological distress.
• Social stigma.
• Damage to reputation.
• Loss of employment opportunities.
• Financial disadvantage.
• Discrimination.
• Exposure of confidential beliefs or experiences.
• Unwanted identification.
• Legal or institutional consequences.
• Harm to community relationships.
• Inappropriate disclosure of culturally restricted information.

The level of ethical protection should be proportionate to the nature and likelihood of these risks.

Researchers should explain how foreseeable risks are identified, minimized, and managed.

Where unexpected serious risks emerge during the study, researchers should reassess the procedures and take appropriate corrective action.

Responsible protection of participants extends beyond the period of data collection.

Researchers should establish appropriate procedures for handling information throughout the research lifecycle.

Data Collection

Only information reasonably necessary for the research should be collected.

Data Storage

Research records should be stored using appropriate technical and organizational safeguards.

Access Control

Identifiable and confidential information should be accessible only to authorized individuals with legitimate research responsibilities.

Data Sharing

Where datasets are shared publicly or with other researchers, confidentiality, consent restrictions, intellectual property rights, and applicable laws must be respected.

Data Preservation

Researchers should explain whether data will be retained, archived, or made available for future research.

Data Disposal

Information that is no longer required should be securely deleted, destroyed, or anonymized where appropriate and legally permissible.

IJHACSS encourages responsible research transparency but does not require the public release of identifiable participant information or sensitive datasets where disclosure would be unethical or unlawful.

The increasing use of artificial intelligence in social research creates additional responsibilities concerning privacy, consent, confidentiality, and data integrity.

Authors must not upload confidential interviews, identifiable participant records, restricted datasets, or other sensitive information to external AI systems without appropriate authorization and safeguards.

AI-assisted transcription, translation, coding, or analysis must comply with the research project's ethical and data protection obligations.

AI-Generated Research Materials

Researchers must not fabricate participants, interviews, quotations, field observations, oral histories, or other empirical evidence using artificial intelligence.

Synthetic data or simulations may be used in appropriate methodological work only when clearly identified as synthetic and not misrepresented as observations from actual participants.

AI-Assisted Anonymization

Automated anonymization tools may be used where suitable, but researchers must verify that identifying information has been adequately protected.

Responsible Interpretation

AI-generated summaries or interpretations should be checked against original material to prevent distortion of participants' statements and experiences.

Human researchers remain responsible for the accuracy, confidentiality, and ethical integrity of their research.

Authors submitting human-participant research to IJHACSS should include an appropriate ethics statement in their manuscript.

The content of the statement should reflect the nature of the study.

Where Ethics Committee Approval Was Obtained

Authors should identify the approving institution or committee and relevant approval information.

Example:

The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of [Institution Name] (Approval No. [Reference Number]). Research procedures were conducted in accordance with applicable institutional and ethical requirements.

Where Approval Was Not Required

Authors should explain the applicable reason for exemption or non-requirement.

Example:

Formal ethics committee approval was not required for this study under the applicable institutional research ethics policy. The research was conducted with appropriate safeguards for confidentiality and responsible data use.

This statement should be used only where it accurately reflects the research circumstances.

Informed Consent Statement

Where applicable, authors should provide a statement explaining how informed consent was obtained.

Example:

Informed consent was obtained from participants before their participation in interviews. Participants were informed about the research purpose, voluntary participation, confidentiality measures, and intended use of the collected information.

Consent for Publication

Where identifiable personal information, photographs, or recordings are published, the manuscript should confirm that appropriate publication authorization has been obtained.

The editorial office may request supporting documentation where reasonably necessary.

Confidential consent forms containing personal information should not automatically be uploaded as public supplementary files.

IJHACSS reserves the right to evaluate ethical compliance during manuscript screening, peer review, revision, and publication preparation.

Editors and reviewers may examine:

• Whether research participants were treated appropriately.
• Whether ethics committee approval was obtained where required.
• Whether informed consent procedures were suitable.
• Whether participant anonymity and confidentiality were adequately protected.
• Whether research procedures created unjustified risks.
• Whether sensitive cultural or community information was handled responsibly.
• Whether data collection and reporting were transparent.
• Whether the manuscript contains unnecessary identifiable information.
• Whether permissions were obtained for relevant visual and audiovisual materials.

The journal may request clarification, additional documentation, or revisions when ethical concerns arise.

A manuscript may be rejected when serious ethical deficiencies remain unresolved.

Editorial decisions should be proportionate to the evidence and the nature of the concern.

IJHACSS does not tolerate serious ethical violations involving the mistreatment or exploitation of research participants.

Examples include:

• Conducting research without required ethical approval.
• Obtaining participant information through coercion or unauthorized access.
• Publishing identifiable confidential information without an appropriate basis.
• Fabricating consent documents.
• Misrepresenting participant statements.
• Disclosing restricted personal or community information without authorization.
• Fabricating interview or survey responses.
• Ignoring serious foreseeable risks without justification.
• Violating relevant research confidentiality agreements.

Where credible concerns are identified, the journal may request explanations or supporting documentation and conduct an appropriate editorial investigation.

Depending on the findings, actions may include manuscript rejection, correction, expression of concern, retraction, or referral to an appropriate institution or authority.

Authors should be given a reasonable opportunity to respond when appropriate.

An allegation alone does not establish misconduct.

The journal recognizes that ethical concerns may emerge after an article has been published.

Research participants, readers, researchers, institutions, or other affected individuals may raise concerns regarding confidentiality, unauthorized identification, informed consent, or inappropriate representation.

The editorial office will examine credible complaints according to applicable editorial and publication ethics procedures.

Corrections

Corrections may be issued where a problem can be remedied without invalidating the central scholarly contribution.

Expressions of Concern

An Expression of Concern may be issued where significant unresolved ethical questions require readers to be informed.

Retractions

Retraction may be warranted when serious ethical violations fundamentally compromise the reliability or legitimacy of a publication.

Protection from Ongoing Harm

Where published material creates a credible and significant risk to an identifiable person, the journal may consider proportionate protective measures, including appropriate redaction or temporary access restrictions, while preserving the integrity of the scholarly record as far as possible.

The journal will seek to balance research transparency, publication accountability, applicable law, and the protection of affected individuals.

Authors

Authors bear primary responsibility for designing and conducting ethically appropriate research.

They must secure required approvals, obtain applicable consent, protect participant information, accurately report findings, and disclose relevant ethical limitations.

Reviewers

Reviewers should assess ethical matters relevant to the manuscript and notify the handling editor of credible concerns.

Reviewers must maintain confidentiality and avoid independent disclosure of participant information.

Editors

Editors should evaluate ethical concerns fairly and independently.

Where necessary, editors may seek additional expertise or supporting documentation.

The editorial team must not disclose confidential participant information beyond what is legitimately required for journal operations or an appropriate investigation.

Publisher

The publisher is responsible for supporting appropriate editorial procedures, maintaining safeguards for submitted information, and facilitating the resolution of publication-related ethical concerns.

IJHACSS's proposed research participant protection framework draws on established principles of responsible human-participant research.

Relevant guidance includes:

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), UK Research and Innovation

Provides principles for ethical social research, participant autonomy, confidentiality, proportionate risk assessment, and research integrity.

Oral History Association (OHA)

Provides guidance concerning informed consent, narrator rights, oral-history documentation, community relationships, preservation, and responsible access.

Institutional Research Ethics Committees

Provide relevant ethical review and oversight according to institutional and jurisdictional requirements.

Applicable National and International Data Protection Requirements

Guide the lawful and responsible processing of personal information.

These resources support the journal's approach but do not replace the specific ethical or legal requirements governing individual studies.

The journal's policies should be applied in conjunction with its Author Guidelines, Editorial Policies, Peer Review Policy, Privacy Policy, and Publication Ethics procedures.

Authors who are uncertain about ethical requirements should seek guidance from their institutional ethics committee or other competent research ethics authority before undertaking relevant research.

For questions about manuscript reporting requirements, publication of identifiable material, consent documentation, or ethical concerns relating to submitted articles, authors may contact the IJHACSS editorial office.

International Journal of Humanities, Arts, Commerce and Social Sciences (IJHACSS)

Publisher: LBS Publication (A Unit of SharLak Foundation)

Editorial Email: editor@ijhacss.com

Support Email: support@ijhacss.com

Website: https://khaki-starling-459600.hostingersite.com/

Contact Address: Shalbhkas Villa, Behind Bank Colony, Abhimanyu Nagar, Rupaspur, Patna – 801503, Bihar, India.

Our Ethical Commitment

At IJHACSS, we believe that academic research should deepen our understanding of individuals, societies, institutions, and cultures without compromising the dignity, autonomy, or legitimate interests of those who contribute to the research process.

Responsible scholarship requires more than methodological competence. It demands respect for human experience, sensitivity to cultural and social contexts, transparency in research practices, and accountability for the potential consequences of publication.

By promoting informed consent, participant confidentiality, responsible data management, ethical community engagement, and rigorous editorial oversight, IJHACSS seeks to foster research that advances knowledge while respecting the people and communities upon whom that knowledge depends.

IJHACSS — Advancing Knowledge with Integrity, Respect, and Responsibility.