Editorial policies

Every submission is first screened by the editors for scope, ethics and originality. Work that passes screening receives an editorial review against the journal's published standards: evidence, stated limitations, declared interests, and no invented data or citations. Editorial decisions and their dates are recorded on each published work. External peer review is invited where the field requires it.

The journal follows the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, WAME). Authors must declare competing interests, funding, ethical approval and consent where human participants are involved. Concerns about published work are investigated and, where upheld, answered publicly with a correction or a retraction notice carrying its own DOI.

Every submission is screened for similarity against published literature before editorial review. Work found to reuse text or data without attribution is declined, and, if discovered after publication, retracted with a public notice.

Authors are asked to make the data and materials behind their findings openly available wherever ethics and consent allow, and to state where they can be found. Every published work carries a data availability statement.

Generative tools may assist with language and analysis, but cannot be an author. Authors must disclose how such tools were used, and remain fully responsible for every claim, number and citation in their work.

Published work is preserved in an independent repository copy alongside the journal's own hosting, so the record survives the journal. Each work's archive copy is listed on its page.

The journal charges no fees of any kind. There are no submission charges, no article processing charges and no charges to read. Publishing is funded entirely by the World Happiness Foundation.

When something published turns out to be wrong, the Lab says so in public. Corrections, errata and retractions are issued as notices with their own DOI, linked to the original work in both directions, and the original page carries the notice at the top. Nothing is silently edited or quietly removed.

Concerns about a published work, an editorial decision or an author's conduct can be raised with the editors by email. The editors reply, investigate where warranted, and act on what they find — including against their own earlier decisions.