Appropriate consent, permission, and releases must be obtained where an author wishes to include case details or other personal and/or any other individuals in a publication. Written consent must be retained by the author and copies of the consent or evidence that such consent has been obtained must be provided to the IJJST Editorial Board on request. 

It is the responsibility of the author to ensure that: 

  Each individual or individuals, including children(but excluding clients), appearing in a picture, image, artwork or case material(or in any other identifiable form), or the individual's legal guardian or other person authorized to act on behalf of the individual, is informed in advance that: Such photographs are  being taken and the purpose for such photographs, images, illustrations, or reports are clear. The applicable legal guardian or person with legal authority must provide expressed written consent. Written consent must be retained by the journal upon request (https://www.sandplay.org/journal/jst-other/writing-for-sandplay-considerations-for-symbol-papers-final-case-reports-and-publishable-manuscripts/). Even of written consent was obtained for publication in the article, if there is a request from the client or the legal guardian or person to withdraw the article or picture even after publication by the Journal, the Journal will respect the wishes of the client or legal guardian.

  Especially in the case that clinical information or material is included in the article, the author(s) should express that clinical works have to be done under the Code of Ethics for Sandplay Therapists that is regulated by the International Society for Sandpaly Therapy(www.isst-society.org).  

  Photographs of the client or related persons should not be submitted and will not be published by the journal. In the case that a picture of a person who is not client or related person is in the article, it should have consent from that person and the applicable legal guardian or person with legal authority and consent. This is necessary for publication in the article. In the event a child appears in a photograph, their head or face will be disguised and personal details such as the individual's names and any identifying marks (e.g., jewelry or tattoos) will be removed. Even in this case, consent should be obtained from the children and parent/guardian of children. 

  The written consent from should comply with the respective requirements of all applicable data protection and privacy laws. 

  In the case of a child, if the parent or guardian does not consent to the use of the child's sandplay images etc, it is deemed that consent has not been obtained and the use is prohibited. It is also important to ensure that only images of children in appropriate clothing are used to reduce the risk of images being used inappropriately. 

  Care must be taken that even if consent is obtained, the depiction and caption of the individual is respected with no inference that could be seen as disparaging. 

  Do not use the names, initials, school, residential location, hospital, or social security number, data of birth, of  other personal or identifying information of clients and research participants. 

  Images of clients or research participants should not be used unless the information is essential for academic purposes and expressly authorized as part of consent. Even if consent is obtained, the identification details are omitted if it is not essential.

  Where identifying characteristics are changed to protect anonymity , authors must provide assurance that such changes do not distort scientific meaning.

In cases where consent is not obtained, it is usually not sufficient to anonymize a picture simply by using an eye bar or by blurring the person's face. 

The author should make sure that the work is carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/), especially for experiments or clinical work that involves human subjects. Any submitted documents should follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/education/medical-ethics-manual/) and include all representative parts of the population(age, ethnicity, gender) whenever possible.

Authors must receive informed consent for human experimentation and state that in submitted documents. The subject's privacy must always be observed.

Authors must disclose relationships, personal of financial, which could bias their work. Such relationships could include, bur are not limited to employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patents application/registrations, and grants or other funding. All authors should fill in the Conflict of Interest Notification Form 

If you submit an article, it is implicitly understood that your work has not been previously published, not under consideration for publication, and is approved by all authors involved(with the exception of an abstract, lecture, or academic thesis). If it is accepted, the article should not be published anywhere else, in English or another language, without the consent of the copyright holder. Articles may be checked by the Crossref Similarity Check, or other similar software, to verify this(less than 15% plagiarism is allowed).

Authors should carefully consider the author list and order before submitting the manuscript and provide the final author list at the time of original submission. Addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the author list should only be made with the journal editor's approval before the manuscript is accepted. To request these changes, editors must obtain written confirmation (email) from the corresponding author with (a) the reason for the change to the author list and (b) consent to the addition from all authors. For the addition or removals of authors, this includes confirmation of the authors being added and/or removed. Editors will consider adding, deleting, or rearranging authors only in exceptional cases, after the manuscript has been approved. The publishing process will stop while editors review the request. Any requests approved by the editor will result in a corrigendum if the manuscript has already been published in an online issue. 

The Committee on Publication Ethics resolution process (http://publicationethics.org) will be followed in any case where the journal faces suspected cases of research and/or publication misconduct. Examples of such include but are not limited to: plagiarism, duplicate publications, fabricated data, conflicts of interest, ethical problems, and complaints against editors.

The ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.) will be used for Corrections, Retractions, Republications, and Version Control (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/corrections-and-version-control.html). COPE flowcharts will be followed in any case of editorial expressions of concern. (http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts). 

The Editorial Board works to safeguard and monitor publication ethics. The Editorial Board has the authority to accept or reject any article. Included in this is the authority to accept or reject articles in order to avoid a conflict of interest and to promote the publication of corrections or retractions, as well as preserving the anonymity of reviewers. 

Complaints may be raised against the conduct of editors and/or peer reviewers for breach of confidentiality, undisclosed conflicts of interest, or misuse of privileged information obtained during peer reviews. Or, it may arise in disputes over substantive decisions, ie. disagreement about retractions and expressions of concern, and how to deal with them. Also, complaints about the administrative process may be raised. Others, such as irregularities in the editorial process or complaints that journal staff are not responding, may be more managerial in nature. If any of these apply, please fill out the application form in Complaints and appeals | COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics and send it to journal@isst-society.com. The Editorial Board should inform the feedback to the applicant(s) within two weeks.  

Authors are expected to give information about financial support received for the research done and to describe the role of the sponsor(s).

Description of regulation 

Copyright of published material is held by the Editorial Board of the ISST Journal. This is primarily because the Editorial Board is tasked with protecting the integrity of the ISST Journal as the primary source of publication of the content. Should any author wish to have copyright returned to them they must make this request in writing, stating the reasons for this request. As the ISST Journal is Open Access (see page 3 above) it facilitates further use and application of the content by authors and others without infringing on copyright restrictions. 

Articles submitted should be 4,000 – 7,000 words, excluding tables, figures, and references. IJJST uses the APA (American Psychological Association, 7th edition) style guidelines for written works. Italics should not be used for Latin expressions, indent each paragraph, leave no space between paragraphs, double-space after each sentence, avoid full justification, number all pages consecutively, and present tables and figures on separate pages at the end of the manuscript.