The inclusion of ethics approval and informed consent/animal welfare statements is a fundamental requirement for research articles, and a key responsibility for each handling Editor to uphold. Sage has created the PDFs below for journals that publish human and/or animal studies, in order to assist Editors in ensuring that these statements are present and correct, and to ensure consistency of statements between and within journals.

• Editor Guidelines: Ethics Approval and Informed Consent Statements - this is a policy document with two appendices (common issues plus examples of statements, and template text for requesting more information from authors).
• Flowcharts: Ethics Approval and Informed Consent Statements - this document contains visual guides for different study and article types to assist Editors in determining whether adequate statements have been included or if additional information should be requested from authors

Please Sage Journal Editor Gateway for further information.