ISESP requires research involving human participants or identifiable personal data to comply with applicable institutional, national, and international ethical requirements. This policy applies to relevant research in smart energy systems, energy technologies, energy management, artificial intelligence, data-driven energy applications, digital energy platforms, and other interdisciplinary energy-related fields involving human participants or personal data.
Ethics Review
Where required by applicable law, institutional policy, funder requirements, or the responsible ethics body, authors must obtain approval from a recognized Institutional Review Board (IRB), research ethics committee, or equivalent authorized body before data collection begins. The manuscript must identify the approving body and approval/reference number where available. If formal review was not required, authors should state this and provide the basis for the exemption or waiver where applicable.
Participant Consent
Informed consent to participate must be obtained when required by the study design, applicable law, institutional policy, or the responsible ethics body. This may apply to surveys, interviews, experiments, workplace or organizational studies, consumer research, employee research, and online-user research. Consent may be written, electronic, or otherwise documented in a form permitted by the relevant requirements. An authorized waiver may be used where appropriate. The manuscript should state whether participant consent was obtained or waived, where applicable.
Publication of Identifiable Information
A separate downloadable consent form from ISESP is not routinely required. However, if a manuscript includes identifiable personal information - such as names, recognizable quotations or case descriptions, photographs, audio/video material, employee or customer information, or organizationally identifiable information - authors must obtain appropriate permission or authorization for publication unless a lawful and ethics-approved exception applies. Identifying information that is unnecessary to the scholarly content should be removed. A publication-consent statement should be included in the manuscript where applicable.
Participants Requiring Additional Safeguards
Research involving participants who may be vulnerable to coercion, undue influence, or unequal power relationships must include appropriate safeguards and comply with the requirements of the responsible ethics body. This may include, for example, minors or individuals in economically, professionally, or institutionally dependent relationships. Authors should explain the safeguards used when relevant.
Study Registration and Preregistration
Where preregistration or prospective registration is required or appropriate for the study design, funder, institution, or reporting standard, authors should use a discipline-appropriate registry, protocol repository, or recognized open-science repository. The manuscript should provide the registration identifier or persistent link where available and explain material deviations from a preregistered protocol. Registration does not replace ethics review or participant consent where these are required.
Privacy and Confidentiality
Personal, employee, customer, organizational, commercial, or other confidential data must be collected, stored, analyzed, and shared in accordance with applicable privacy and data-protection requirements. Identifiable or confidential information must not be published unless necessary and appropriately authorized. Editors and reviewers must also protect confidential information encountered during editorial and peer-review activities.
Compliance and Verification
ISESP and its journals may request supporting documentation when ethics approval, participant consent, publication authorization, data authorization, or preregistration is required. Ethical concerns may result in clarification requests, suspension of review, rejection, correction, expression of concern, retraction, or other proportionate action in accordance with ISESP policies and relevant COPE guidance.
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