Ethics and Declarations Guide

The Journal of Child and Youth Psychology (JCYP) regards ethical compliance, transparency, and accountability as fundamental principles of research and scholarly publishing. Authors are expected to provide all ethical and editorial declarations relevant to the nature of their work.

Depending on the study, declarations should be provided in the Cover File, the relevant section of the manuscript, and/or at the end of the article. Where a declaration is not applicable, authors may use a clear statement such as “Not applicable” or “None declared”, where appropriate.

Ethics Approval
Committee name, date, and approval number where applicable
Conflicts of Interest
Disclose any conflicts or state that none exist
Funding
Identify funders and project information
Artificial Intelligence
Uses requiring disclosure must be reported

1. Ethics Committee Approval

Research involving human participants, personal data, psychological assessments, interventions, or other procedures requiring ethics review should receive the necessary ethical approval before the study begins.

Where ethics approval is required, authors should report:

  • The full name of the ethics committee,
  • Date of approval,
  • Approval/decision number,
  • Any other information required to establish the ethical status of the study.

Suggested statement:

This study was approved by the [FULL NAME OF ETHICS COMMITTEE] on [DATE] under approval/decision number [NUMBER].

The editorial office may request a copy of the ethics approval document where necessary.

2. Informed Consent

Appropriate informed consent should be obtained in research involving human participants.

In studies involving children or adolescents, parental/legal guardian consent and, where appropriate, the assent of the child or adolescent should be obtained in accordance with age, developmental level, study procedures, and applicable ethical requirements.

Suggested statement:

Informed consent was obtained from all participants and, where applicable, from their parents or legal guardians.

3. Privacy and Protection of Personal Data

Personal and sensitive information that could directly or indirectly identify participants must be protected.

Particular care should be taken when reporting psychological, health-related, educational, or family information relating to children and adolescents.

Authors are responsible for obtaining appropriate permission for the publication of identifiable photographs, audio, video, case information, or similar material.

4. Conflict of Interest Declaration

Authors must disclose any actual or potential financial, academic, institutional, or personal conflicts of interest that could influence the design, conduct, interpretation, or publication of the research.

If there is no conflict:

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

If a conflict exists:

The author(s) declare the following potential conflict of interest: [DESCRIPTION].

5. Funding and Support Declaration

Any financial support provided by an institution, funding body, grant, project, or other source should be disclosed.

Where a funder had a role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, or publication decisions, this role should also be described.

If funded:

This work was supported by [NAME OF FUNDER] under grant/project number [NUMBER].

If no funding was received:

No financial support was received for this study.

6. Author Contribution Statement

All listed authors should have made meaningful scholarly contributions to the work. Contributions should be reported transparently.

Depending on the study, contributions may include conceptualization, methodology, data collection, analysis, software, data curation, writing, review and editing, visualization, or project administration.

Example:

Conceptualization: A.A., B.B.; Methodology: A.A.; Data Collection: B.B., C.C.; Analysis: A.A., C.C.; Writing—Original Draft: A.A.; Review and Editing: A.A., B.B., C.C. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

7. Data Availability Statement

The availability of research data should be reported as transparently as possible.

Where data cannot be made openly available because of ethical, legal, privacy, or participant-related restrictions, the reason should be stated.

Example — Available on request:

The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, subject to applicable ethical and legal restrictions.

Example — Data cannot be shared:

The raw data from this study cannot be made publicly available because of participant confidentiality and ethical restrictions.

8. Artificial Intelligence Use Declaration

Where generative AI or AI-assisted technologies have been used for text generation, literature synthesis, translation, code generation, data analysis, image generation, or similar content-generating purposes, their use must be disclosed in accordance with the journal's Artificial Intelligence Use Policy.

Suggested statement:

During the preparation of this work, the author(s) used [NAME OF TOOL/SYSTEM and, where possible, VERSION] for [PURPOSE OF USE]. The outputs generated by the AI system were reviewed by the author(s), and the author(s) assume full responsibility for the final content of the manuscript.

Tools used solely for basic spelling, punctuation, or grammar correction without altering the scholarly content may not require separate disclosure.

9. Manuscripts Derived from a Thesis

Where a manuscript is derived from a master's or doctoral thesis, this should be disclosed.

Suggested statement:

This article is derived from the [MASTER'S/DOCTORAL] thesis entitled “[THESIS TITLE],” completed by [AUTHOR] at [UNIVERSITY/INSTITUTE].

10. Manuscripts Derived from a Research Project

If the study was conducted as part of an institutional, national, international, or externally funded research project, relevant project information should be provided.

Example:

This study was conducted as part of project [PROJECT TITLE/NUMBER], supported by [INSTITUTION].

11. Previous Conference Presentation

If an earlier version of the work was presented as an oral or poster presentation at a congress, symposium, or other scientific meeting, this should be disclosed.

Example:

Part of this study was presented as an [ORAL/POSTER] presentation at [NAME OF MEETING], [DATE], [LOCATION].

12. Acknowledgements

Individuals or institutions that contributed technically, administratively, academically, or otherwise but do not meet authorship criteria may be acknowledged.

Acknowledgements should not create a misleading impression regarding authorship, responsibility, or endorsement of the work.

13. Permissions for Copyrighted Materials

Authors are responsible for obtaining any required permissions to reproduce or use copyrighted scales, tests, figures, tables, images, instruments, or other materials.

The editorial office may request documentation of such permissions where necessary.

14. Suggested Order of Declarations at the End of the Article

Depending on the nature of the study, authors are encouraged to include the applicable headings in the following order:

Ethics Approval
Informed Consent
Author Contributions
Conflict of Interest
Funding
Data Availability
Artificial Intelligence Use Declaration
Acknowledgements
Thesis / Project / Conference Presentation Statement

Headings that are not applicable to the study may be omitted.

15. Author Responsibility

Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of all ethical, financial, and editorial declarations. Where inaccurate, incomplete, or potentially misleading information is identified, the editorial office may request additional information or documentation and take appropriate editorial action.

JCYP regards ethical and editorial declarations not merely as formal requirements but as a fundamental component of scientific transparency, research integrity, and reader trust.