Journal/Publisher requesting for ethics approvals

The journal/publisher is asking for evidence of ethics approval for my research. How to obtain this? 

 

NTU is a member of the international Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and adheres to best practices on publication and research ethics.

NTU-IRB is unable to provide retrospective ethics approvals for research already conducted. This is because recommended changes to a protocol arising from an ethics review cannot be implemented retrospectively. Hence, any retrospective review and approval will not be conducted.  

Researchers should be aware that publishers are likely to reject a manuscript if proper ethics approvals are not available. If ethics approvals are subsequently fabricated, this will be considered a serious misconduct by the university. 

Some relevant case examples from COPE:

  1. Journals routinely ask for evidence of ethics approvals
  2. Retrospective ethics approvals not allowed
  3. Use of 'secondary data' requires ethics approval