ETHICAL CLEARANCE

Formal ethical clearance may not be required for studies that do not involve direct human participation or identifiable personal data.

Exceptions include:
• Studies using publicly available data, documents, or archival records.
• Literature reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses based on published data.
• Research using fully anonymized secondary data.
• Conceptual, theoretical, or methodological papers without empirical human data.

Authors must clearly state and justify the exemption in the manuscript in accordance with applicable regulations. The Editor-in-Chief may evaluate the justification and request further clarification. If ethical status is unclear, the journal may require ethical approval or reject the manuscript in line with COPE principles.

Authors in Indonesia may obtain ethical clearance from the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) or other authorized bodies.