Ethics and Consent Guidelines

Basic principles

Any kind of research or activity conducted with human beings must always follow these basic principles:

1. The activity and its public or scientific report must enhance the general welfare.
2. The purpose of the activity must be the development of human good.
3. Such development should always be achieved in a way that is respectable and coherent with other surrounding environments (i.e .other human communities, natural environment, cultural settings, etc.).
4. Respect for the dignity and worth of all the involved individuals and communities shall always take precedence over the interests of researchers, lobbies, companies, parties, or smaller group of people.

Given the multidisciplinary nature of the Continuity of Education journal, different types of ethics and consent codes are applicable, depending on the nature of the reported activity. The types of applicable codes are those for clinical research and practice and those for educational research and practice, as specified below.

Clinical research and practice

This includes clinical and psychological therapeutic activities, conducted in a therapeutic setting (i.e. hospital, clinic) or under the aegis of a specific and certified therapeutic entity (e.g., hospital or clinic, mental health service, pet therapy centre, child life service, etc.) Clinical research involving human subjects, human material, or human data must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Where applicable, studies must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee at least at a local level and the authors should include a statement within the article text detailing this approval, including the name of the ethics committee. The identity of the research subject(s) should be anonymised. Unless there is a clear need, the names of the place(s) or institution(s) where the research was carried out should also be anonymised and replaced with a general description of the context. For research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study must be obtained from participants (or their legal guardian) and added to this statement.

Any raw data and material should be protected, and kept safe and secure in accordance with applicable privacy law.

As a minimum standard, regardless of their age, participants should always be made aware that:

• ● Their participation is voluntary (non-mandatory). 
• ● They can withdraw from the activity at any time. 
• ● Their personal identity will remain confidential (unless otherwise agreed, for instance in case of specific narrative research). 
• ● The participants will not be graded on activities that form part of the research. 

Research involving animals must follow national standards of care or comply with the consensus guidelines on animal ethics and welfare of the International Association of Veterinary Editors.

Educational practice

This includes educational and psychoeducational activities, conducted in a formal or informal educational setting. For these kinds of activities individual or parental consent should have been obtained (for instance, at the time of the child’s enrollment in the activity, or even retrospectively, when the decision to write an article based on the activity was taken) and the option to avoid participation must always be given.  Unless there is a clear need, the names of the place(s) or institution(s) where the research was carried out should be anonymised and replaced with a general description of the context. If the reported practice was based on a school activity that was part of the approved school curriculum, then the authors should state such circumstance and state that:

• ● The activity was approved by the local school authorities (for example, class or parents committee or school board). 
• ● No additional consent was deemed necessary because what happened to the participants during the research/practice, in practical terms, was no different from what would (or could) have happened to them in a normal classroom context. 
• ● All gathered data are presented in aggregated and anonymous form.  
• ● Parents and children have been offered the option to avoid participation at different stages of the activity (for instance, at time of enrollment, when the activity was carried out in the class, when a decision to publish a practice article was made by the authors). 

Educational research

Educational or psychological research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with a relevant code of ethics in the field, issued by an established local, national or international institution, such as an association, a university, a school board. Examples of such codes of ethics include:

• ● Australian Association for research in Education code of ethics (AARE)  
• ● Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research of the British Educational Research Association (BERA) 
• ● Code of Ethics of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) 
• ● Guidelines produced by the Board of Ethics of the European Federation of Psychologist’s Associations (EFPA) 
• ● The Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct of the American Psychological Association (APA) 

As a minimum standard, regardless of their age, participants in educational research should always be made aware that:

• ● Their participation is voluntary (non-mandatory). 
• ● They can withdraw from the activity at any time. 
• ● Their personal identity will remain confidential (unless otherwise agreed, for instance in case of narrative activities involving children’s artifacts or products). 
• ● The participants will not be graded on activities that form part of the research. 

For research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study must be obtained from participants (or their legal guardian). Although consent practices should follow applicable research ethics standards, the inclusion of child and youth assent shall be strongly preferred. In contexts where children and youth are considered incapable of providing informed consent to participate in a study, and consent is provided by persons bearing parental authority, verbal or written/signed assent shall be elicited from children and youth participating in the study from 5/6 years of age onward.  Unless there is a clear need, the names of the place(s) or institution(s) where the research was carried out should be anonymised and replaced with a general description of the context.

For retrospective studies using school-related products made in the past (e. g., students' essays, drawings, interviews), such consent may also be obtained after the activity is concluded, but before it is used for the article being written, and the option to avoid participation must always be presented. Any raw data and material should be protected, kept safe and secure in accordance with applicable privacy law.

Activities involving animals (for instance: pet therapy, some outdoor activities) must follow national standards of care or comply with the consensus guidelines on animal ethics and welfare of the International Association of Veterinary Editors.