Ethics and research integrity
An organization that asks you to trust its findings should be willing to show you how it works. This page states our position in full. It is deliberately specific, because vague ethics statements are easy to write and tell you nothing.
What we do not do
- We do not write theses, dissertations or term papers for students. Not as “drafting support”, not as “writing assistance”, not under any other description.
- We do not sell, offer, imply or negotiate authorship. Authorship is earned through contribution under ICMJE criteria and is determined by the research, never by a contract. No payment to The Ideology, at any level, purchases a position on a paper.
- We do not guarantee publication. No one can. Any organization that offers a publication guarantee is either misleading you or working with journals you should not publish in.
- We do not fabricate, falsify or selectively report data. We report what we found.
- We do not shape findings to a client's preference. If a finding is inconvenient, it remains a finding. This is stated in our contracts.
- We do not write admissions essays, statements of purpose or personal statements. This is not research and it is not something a research institute should be doing.
What we do
For researchers and institutions, we provide:
- Research question and topic development · study design · protocol development
- Conceptual and theoretical framework development
- Sampling strategy and sample size calculation
- Instrument development, adaptation and validation
- Ethics submission preparation and data management
- Statistical analysis · qualitative analysis · interpretation support
- Systematic review and meta-analysis methodology
- Health economics analysis
- Scientific editing of the author’s own writing
- Journal selection, submission support and reviewer-response support
This is substantial, skilled work. It is also entirely compatible with research integrity, because in every case the research remains the researcher's own.
Our authorship policy
Authorship requires all four of: substantial contribution to conception or design, or to acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data; drafting or critically revising the work; final approval of the version to be published; and agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
SUPPORT ENGAGEMENTS
Where our contribution is methodological, analytical or editorial support, it is disclosed in the acknowledgements, and we ask every client to make that disclosure. We can provide standard wording.
COLLABORATIVE STUDIES
Where a team member contributes at a level that genuinely meets all four criteria, authorship follows as a factual consequence of the contribution — agreed in writing before the work begins.
NEVER A DELIVERABLE
Authorship is never priced, never promised and never negotiable as part of a fee. If this rules out an arrangement you were hoping for, we would rather tell you now.
Ethical review and approval
All studies involving human participants are submitted for ethical review before data collection begins. We do not begin fieldwork on an unapproved protocol, regardless of timeline pressure.
The Ideology does not yet operate its own institutional review board. Protocols are submitted to the relevant government, institutional or organizational ethics committee. Establishing our own committee is a stated objective, and we will say so here when it exists rather than before.
Informed consent
Participants are informed, in their own language, of the purpose of the research, who is funding it, what will happen to their data, the risks and benefits of participation, their right to decline, and their right to withdraw at any point without consequence. Consent is documented. Where participants cannot read, verbal consent is obtained and witnessed.
Conflict of interest and funding
We disclose any financial, institutional or personal interest that could reasonably be seen to affect a study's design, conduct, analysis or reporting. Where a conflict cannot be managed, we decline the work.
The funder of every study we conduct or publish is stated, including for our own research. Funders do not control design, analysis or the decision to publish.
Data protection and confidentiality
Personal identifiers are separated from analysis data and stored separately with restricted access, limited to named team members on the study.
Client data and findings are confidential. We do not disclose a client's identity, data or results without written permission, and we do not reuse client data for our own research without a written agreement.
Retention periods and secure destruction are set in each study's protocol and contract, and follow whichever is longer: the funder's requirement or the condition of ethical approval. Read the data protection policy →
Use of AI
We use AI tools for defined, disclosed purposes — literature searching, language editing, code assistance and formatting. We do not use AI to generate research findings, to write results or discussion sections, or to substitute for analysis. Any substantive use of AI in a study is disclosed in that study's methods, in line with the policy of the journal or funder concerned.
We publish this because we think an organization in our field should have a clear position rather than an unstated practice.
Plagiarism and publication ethics
All work we produce is original and appropriately cited, and we screen outputs for originality before delivery. We will not work with a client who asks us to produce work to be submitted as someone else's unaided effort.
We follow COPE guidance on authorship, duplicate publication, data availability, corrections and retractions. Where we identify an error in published work we have contributed to, we support its correction.
Raising a concern
If you believe we have fallen short of anything on this page
Write to ethics@theideology.org. Concerns are reviewed by the Managing Director, or — where the concern involves the Managing Director — by an independent reviewer appointed for the purpose. You will receive a substantive response within ten working days.
We publish this so you can check it
Most organizations in this market do not state any of the above. We do, because it tells you exactly what kind of organization you are dealing with — and because a standard you have not published is not a standard.