Animal Research Ethics Policy

1. Policy Statement

Research involving animals must be scientifically justified and conducted with respect for animal welfare. Authors are responsible for ensuring that all animal studies submitted to Impaxon journals comply with applicable ethical, legal, and institutional requirements.

Animal welfare should be considered throughout the design, conduct, reporting, and publication of research.

2. Scope

This policy applies to all research involving live vertebrate animals, cephalopods where applicable, animal-derived biological materials when ethical oversight is required, laboratory animals, farm animals, companion animals, wildlife, aquatic animals, and field-based animal studies submitted to Impaxon journals.

3. Ethical Approval

Authors must obtain approval from an appropriate Animal Ethics Committee, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), or equivalent ethics authority before commencing research involving animals where such approval is required.

Manuscripts should identify the approving authority, approval reference number where available, and confirm that the study complied with applicable institutional and national regulations.

If ethical approval was not required, authors should explain the reason and identify the applicable institutional or regulatory basis for the exemption where appropriate.

4. Compliance with Animal Welfare Standards

Animal research should comply with recognised principles of animal welfare, applicable legislation, institutional policies, and accepted scientific standards governing the care and use of animals in research.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that all personnel involved in animal procedures possess appropriate training, competence, and supervision.

5. The Principles of Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement (3Rs)

Authors are expected to apply the internationally recognised principles of Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement wherever reasonably possible.

• Replacement: use non-animal alternatives whenever suitable.
• Reduction: use the minimum number of animals necessary to achieve scientifically valid results.
• Refinement: minimise pain, suffering, distress, and improve animal welfare throughout the study.

6. Animal Housing and Care

Animals should be housed, transported, handled, and cared for in accordance with recognised veterinary and animal welfare standards appropriate to the species involved.

Housing conditions, environmental enrichment, feeding, monitoring, and husbandry practices should support animal health and welfare throughout the study.

7. Veterinary Care

Appropriate veterinary oversight should be available throughout the study. Animals experiencing illness, unexpected complications, pain, or distress should receive prompt veterinary assessment and appropriate treatment.

Authors should ensure that anaesthesia, analgesia, sedation, surgical procedures, and post-procedural care follow accepted veterinary practice where applicable.

8. Pain, Distress, and Humane Endpoints

Experimental procedures should be designed to minimise pain, suffering, distress, and lasting harm. Humane endpoints should be established before the study begins and implemented whenever necessary to protect animal welfare.

Authors should describe measures taken to minimise animal suffering where relevant to the study.

9. Wildlife and Field Research

Research involving wildlife, free-ranging animals, endangered species, protected species, or field-based animal studies must comply with relevant permits, conservation laws, institutional requirements, and animal welfare standards.

Authors should confirm that required permissions, collection permits, capture permits, transport permits, or field research approvals were obtained where applicable.

10. Reporting Standards

Authors should report animal research clearly and transparently, including information on species, strain, sex, age, number of animals, housing conditions, experimental procedures, ethical approval, welfare measures, anaesthesia, analgesia, humane endpoints, and statistical methods where relevant.

Authors are encouraged to follow recognised reporting standards for animal research, including the ARRIVE guidelines where applicable.

11. Ethics Statements in Manuscripts

Manuscripts involving animal research must include an ethics statement. The statement should identify the approving ethics authority, approval reference where available, and confirm compliance with relevant animal welfare regulations and institutional guidelines.

Where ethical approval was not required, authors must clearly explain why and identify the applicable institutional, regulatory, or legal basis.

12. Animal-Derived Materials

Research using animal-derived biological materials, tissues, samples, images, or data should comply with applicable ethical, legal, institutional, and biosafety requirements.

Authors should describe the source of such materials and confirm that collection, transfer, storage, and use complied with relevant requirements where applicable.

13. Editorial Assessment

Editors may request ethics approval documents, animal welfare information, permits, veterinary records, or other supporting documentation during editorial assessment or peer review.

Manuscripts may be rejected if ethical approval, welfare safeguards, legal permissions, or supporting documentation are not adequate.

14. Non-Compliance

Failure to comply with animal research ethics requirements may result in rejection, correction, expression of concern, retraction, or notification to institutions, ethics committees, funders, or other relevant bodies where appropriate.

15. Post-Publication Concerns

If concerns arise after publication regarding animal welfare, ethical approval, permits, legal compliance, reporting standards, or the humane conduct of research, Impaxon may investigate the matter and request clarification or supporting documents from the authors.

Where necessary, editorial action may be taken in accordance with the Corrections & Retractions Policy.

16. Changes to this Policy

Impaxon may revise this policy periodically to reflect developments in animal welfare standards, ethical guidance, legal requirements, reporting standards, and scholarly publishing best practices.