All research involving human participants must be conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and the relevant national and institutional requirements.

•      Manuscripts reporting research with human participants must state the name of the approving ethics committee or institutional review board and the approval reference number and date. Where formal approval was not required, the manuscript must explain why, with reference to the applicable national rules.

•      Informed consent must be obtained from all participants and, where applicable, consent for publication of identifiable information. The manuscript must state that this was obtained.

•      Participant confidentiality and data protection must be maintained; data must be anonymised or pseudonymised, and handled in accordance with [GDPR / applicable national data protection law].

•      Research involving vulnerable groups, minors, or sensitive personal data requires explicit justification and documented safeguards.

•      Where organisational data is used, authors must confirm that permission was obtained from the organisation and that confidentiality undertakings are respected.

•      The editors may request the ethics approval documentation at any stage and may reject or retract work where ethical standards have not been met.