Human Rights and Animal Rights Policy

Human Rights and Animal Rights Policy

All papers submitted to Wisdom Vortex: International Journal of Social Science and Humanities must adhere to the highest ethical standards concerning research involving human and animal subjects. Authors are required to include a clear and explicit statement ensuring compliance with these ethical guidelines. Manuscripts that fail to meet these requirements will not be considered for publication.

Human Rights Policy

  • Research involving human participants must be conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible institutional or national Ethics Committee and the Declaration of Helsinki (1975, revised in 2000 & 2008).
  • The manuscript must contain a statement of ethical approval from an institutional review board (IRB) or equivalent ethics committee. If approval was not required, authors must provide a justification.
  • Informed consent from participants (or legal guardians, where applicable) must be obtained prior to participation in the study. A statement confirming this should be included in the manuscript.
  • Participants’ confidentiality and privacy must be strictly maintained. Identifiable personal data must not be disclosed unless explicit consent has been obtained.
  • In studies involving vulnerable populations (e.g., children, individuals with disabilities, minority groups), special protections should be applied, and additional ethical approvals may be required.
  • If there is any uncertainty regarding compliance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must provide a detailed explanation of their approach and demonstrate that any questionable aspects were explicitly approved by the ethical review board.

Animal Rights Policy

  • Research involving animal subjects must comply with institutional, national, and international guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals.
  • Authors must provide a statement confirming that their study was approved by an appropriate Animal Ethics Committee.
  • Experimental procedures should minimize pain, distress, and suffering in animals.
  • The 3Rs principle (Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement) should be followed to ensure responsible animal research:
  • Replacement: Use alternatives to animals where possible.
  • Reduction: Minimize the number of animals used without compromising research quality.
  • Refinement: Improve procedures to minimize animal suffering.
  • If the research involves endangered species or wildlife, authors must confirm that their work complies with international conservation guidelines and relevant legal regulations.

Ethical Review and Compliance

  • Manuscripts that do not include an explicit Ethical Compliance Statement for human and animal research will not be considered for review.
  • Editors may request additional documentation, such as:
  • Ethical approval certificates
  • Copies of informed consent forms
  • Detailed explanations of experimental procedures
  • If a study is found to have violated human or animal ethics, it will be rejected, and appropriate actions may be taken, including notifying the authors’ institution or regulatory authorities.

Transparency and Reporting

Authors should provide the following mandatory statements in their manuscript:

  1. For human research:
    "This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the [Institutional Review Board name] and the Declaration of Helsinki (1975, revised in 2000 and 2008). Informed consent was obtained from all participants (or their legal guardians where applicable)."
  2. For animal research:
    "This study was conducted in accordance with [Institutional/National Animal Care Guidelines]. The procedures were reviewed and approved by the [Institutional Animal Ethics Committee]."

Failure to include these statements will result in desk rejection.

Consequences of Non-Compliance

If a study is found to have violated human or animal rights, the journal reserves the right to:

  • Reject the manuscript outright.
  • Retract the publication if ethical misconduct is identified post-publication.
  • Report the violation to relevant regulatory bodies and institutions.

For further inquiries regarding ethical compliance, please contact:

Email: support@shodhmitra.com

Website: www.wvijsh.shodhmitra.com