Research Ethics and Informed Consent

Research involving human participants, interviews, questionnaires, surveys, recordings, observations, personal communications, or identifiable personal information must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international ethical requirements.

Where required, authors must obtain approval from an appropriate research ethics committee or institutional review board before conducting the research. The manuscript must identify the approving institution or committee and provide the relevant approval or reference number.

Authors must obtain informed consent from participants where appropriate. Consent should cover the collection, analysis, storage, and intended use of research materials, including publication of quotations, recordings, images, or other identifiable information where applicable.

For research involving children, vulnerable individuals, or sensitive personal information, authors must demonstrate that appropriate safeguards and consent procedures were implemented.

For linguistic fieldwork, language documentation, sociolinguistic interviews, and community-based research, authors are expected to:

- Respect participants' rights, dignity, privacy, and cultural identities.

- Explain the purpose and intended use of recordings, transcripts, and linguistic materials.

- Obtain appropriate consent for recording, transcription, quotation, and publication.

- Protect the identities of participants where confidentiality or anonymity has been promised.

- Respect community permissions, access conditions, and restrictions on culturally sensitive or confidential language materials.

- Avoid publishing information that could expose participants or communities to harm without appropriate authorization.

Where research involves endangered languages, Indigenous languages, minority language communities, or culturally sensitive materials, authors should consider the interests and preferences of the relevant communities when collecting, storing, sharing, and publishing research data.

If formal ethical approval was not required or was not applicable, authors must provide an explanation in the manuscript. The journal may request supporting documentation where necessary.