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E-Ethics Approval application process
1. Who should complete an E-Ethics form?An E-Ethics Approval application must be submitted by researchers (undergraduate, masters stu-dents, PhD students and staff) prior to commencing any research involving human participants, per-sonal data and animals.
The E-Ethics form is the formal university record that confirms researchers have considered and de-veloped plans to address the ethical issues associated with their research. You should complete the E-Ethics form after you have discussed ethical issues with your research advisor/supervisor or re-search team. You are encouraged to consult the Geography Ethics Committee for advice at any stage prior to completing /should the forms, especially for Track B applications.
2. What are the responsibilities and penalties regarding E-Ethics approval?
It is the responsibility of the researcher to commence and complete the processes for ethical ap-proval. It is the responsibility of research supervisors to ensure the researchers they are supervising have completed the appropriate ethical approval process prior to commencing research. Ethical ap-proval cannot be given once the study has started.
Failure to engage meaningfully with the University of Exeter ethics procedures, including completing an E-Ethics form, is considered a matter of academic misconduct and may result in penalties. These range from the reduction of marks for the implementation of methodology in submitted work to the prospect of legal action for breaches to data and child protection laws.
3. Where can I find the E-Ethics form?
The online form can be accessed via the Geography Ethics Committee pages: For students http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/currentstudents/ethics/
For staff at http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staffarea/ethics/
Or, you can go directly to the form via http://www.exeter.ac.uk/staff/ethicalapproval/ You will need to log in (sometimes twice) using your Exeter id and password.
4. What happens to the E-Ethics form after I have submitted it?
Once you have completed the forms (see below) it is sent to your research advisor/supervisor for review and approval. It will then be sent to the Geography Ethics Committee. If the information sup-plied is to the satisfaction of the supervisor and Ethics committee, your form will be approved and you should receive an email notification, after which you can start your empirical research.
The E-Ethics form will be returned to you for further information if the details you have provided about your planned research methods and the means by which you will address ethical issues in your research are not clear and complete. It is quite common for forms to be returned.
2 5. Flow Chart of Process
The E-Ethics system allows for applications to follow either Track A or Track B. Dependent upon the question answers, Track A or B will be automatically selected. It is expected that the majority of un-dergraduate and taught masters’ dissertations should follow Track A.
Track A is intended for studies which:
a) Involve low ethical risk procedures, subjects and/or individuals (i.e. 18 years or above). b) Do not involve children or vulnerable adults.
c) Are not intrusive when involving animals.
d) Do not involve direct individualised DNA analysis
e) Do not involve novel exercise protocols or substantially modified protocols. f) Include only non-invasive procedures for human test subjects.
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6. Step by step guide to making an E-Ethics Approval application
a. Accessing the E-Ethics form
Go to http://www.exeter.ac.uk/staff/ethicalapproval/ and log in using your Exeter id and password. You will be asked to select your discipline – select Geography. You will then be able to ‘create new application’. Applications can be saved at any point and returned to at a later date.
N.B. For the form to work correctly you will then need to navigate using the ‘previous’ and ‘next’ bottom of the form. Do not use the tabs at the top of the form to create a new application.
b. Details
This section asks for details of the project, researcher and supervisor. For type of project, please se-lect from ‘staff, masters, PhD or undergraduate project’ as appropriate. The researcher completing the form should enter their email as the correspondent’s email. For researchers based in Exeter ‘re-search group’ is likely to be Human (Streatham). You should select this as a default. The project su-pervisor is your dissertation advisor, the principal investigator of funded research, or the research group lead.
4 c. Summary
You will be asked to provide a 400 word summary of your research and the methods that you will use to investigate them. This summary should be brief and needs to be understood by someone who is not an expert in this research field.
You must specify your research methods. Focus groups, interviews, participant observation, textual analysis, online methods and so forth all raise different ethical issues. The form will be return to you if you do not explain the methods you intend to use in your research.
At the end of this section is a drop down box in which you should select ‘Track A’ for research that has no ‘significant ethical considerations’ or ‘Track B’ for research which raises more complex ethical issues (See Section 5). N.B. The answers to later questions may override your selection.
d. Consent
You will be asked a number of questions: select ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘n/a’ (not applicable) as appropriate. The form assumes you are a psychology researcher, not a geographer. Please answer the first question as being about general ‘research aims and methods’, not limited to experimental procedures. You must answer all the questions. Your form will not be approved unless you have answered all of these questions, even if the answer is ‘not applicable’.
If you have answered ‘no’ to any of these questions you must explain why in the box at the end of the page. An example: If will be undertaking research that includes observation of a shopping centre you may select Track A and answer the question ‘If the research is observational, will you ask participants for their consent to be observed?’ with ‘no’. Your explanation would likely turn on the research topic, practicalities and/or ‘data’ being anonymised.
5 e. Participants
You will be asked if your project involves deliberately misleading participants or whether there is a risk of participants experiencing either physical or psychological distress or discomfort in the process of research. This section is targeted at experimental psychological research and is less likely to be relevant to geography research.
However, if you are working with vulnerable people and/or on researching on sensitive issues you should use the drop down boxes to explain how you intend to provide help and support to people who may experience problems (e.g. details of local support groups provided on information sheet).
f. Groups
You will be asked if any of the participants in your research are in, what are judged to be, vulnerable groups. Again, your form will not be approved unless you have answered all of these questions, even of the answer is ‘no’ or ‘not applicable’.
Your answers to these questions may result in further drop boxes. If you are working with local schools you will be directed to University of Exeter Partnerships Director. Contact with local schools is centrally managed to prevent overburdening local communities with research requests.
If you answer ‘yes’ to either questions about working with under 18s or vulnerable groups, you will be automatically directed to ‘Track B’, even if you previously selected ‘Track A’.
6 g. Animals
If your research involves working with animals, other social studies looking at human/animal interac-tions with no potential animal harm, you should seek the advice of the Geography Ethics Committee.
h. Track A or Track B
This is the section where you summarise the ethical issues in your research and what you will do to address these. Both ‘Track A’ or Track B’ applicants should complete all the boxes in this section. So long as you have navigated the page using the ‘previous’ and ‘next’ tabs the form will automati-cally stream your application to the appropriate track.
Track A – You will be asked to confirm there your project has no significant ethical implica-tions that need to be bought before the ethics Geography Ethics Committee. Tick ‘yes’ if you agree there are no significant ethical issues that require further committee discussion. Even if you tick yes, you must still complete the text box beneath. All research involving hu-man subjects involves some ethical issues. You should explain what you consider to be the ethical issues arising in your research and how you will mitigate these. You should not try to hide or ignore ethical considerations. At the very least this should include your protocols for gaining informed consent, assuring confidentiality and issues of data management (e.g.
https://www.exeter.ac.uk/media/level1/academicserviceswebsite/it/recordsmanagementse rvice/Research_DP_Guidance_200912.pdf)
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Track B – You will be asked a number of further questions which elicit more detailed re-sponses on what the significant ethical issues are and how you are mitigating and proposing to handle these. Please discuss these with your supervisor prior to filling in this form. Your responses should be clear, concise, and informative. If your research involves mixed meth-ods please ensure the links between different methmeth-ods, ethical issues and ethical working practices are clear.
If your research involves working with children and young adults; adults who may lack the capacity to consent (due to cognitive disability or temporary incapacitation, e.g. through drugs/alcohol); research in health or social care settings or the management of offenders you are strongly advised to consult the committee at an early stage. Students must do this. You should also notify the Geography Ethics Committee that you will be submitting a ‘Track
B’ proposal. These are discussed at one of the Committee meetings. You must ‘book’ a slot with the committee to ensure your proposal can be discussed in a timely way.
8 i. Attachments
You should use this section to upload the documents relevant to your ethical working practices. This will include information sheets and consent forms used to recruit participants. If your research is being conducted within an organisation, workplace or school, you should also upload confirmation of their consent. The ethics committee will check these are supplied, but you should consult your research supervisor for their assistance in developing simple, clear and appropriate information and consent forms for your research. Please only upload word documents with short file names.
j. Save or Submit
You have the option of saving your work in order to return to it at a later date. Before you submit your form please ask yourself the following questions:
Have I talked through these ethical issues and working practices with my research supervisor? Have I included the planned research methods and location in my research summary?
Have I completed the boxes on ethical issues and ethical working practices for both ‘Track A’ and Track B’ applications explaining consent procedures and data protection issues?
Have I uploaded permissions, information sheet and consent form?
These are the most common reasons why forms are returned to researchers for further information. 7. How long will it take to process my E-Ethics form?
Track ‘A’ applications are sent to supervisors to approve, before being forwarded for review to the chair of the Geography Ethics Committee. This process will depend on staff time and availability and can take up to two weeks in normal circumstances, though you may hear earlier. You should check staff availability prior to submitting E-Ethics forms during vacations if you require approvals within two weeks, as annual leave may result in the process taking longer than two weeks.
If your research is likely to require ‘Track B’ approval you should contact the Chair at an early stage for advice and to book a slot at the relevant ethics committee meeting. The committee meets in Oc-tober, December, February, May and June (please contact the chair for dates). The E-Ethics form should be completed and signed by the supervisor at least a week before the Committee meeting.
You are reminded that ethical approval cannot be given once the study has started. 8. What are the possible outcomes from my E-Ethics application?
The E-Ethics system allows for the following outcomes: Approval of a submission as it stands;
Return of a form for revision due to missing or unclear information; Accept the project subject to specified alterations;
Reject the project proposal.
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9. Can I appeal against the decision made by the Geography Ethics Committee
The Geography Ethics Committee will try and work with all researchers to devise appropriate ethical working practices. A researcher has the right to appeal in writing against a decision made by the Ge-ography Ethics Committee within ten working days of the notification of that decision. There are two grounds for such appeal:
a) Where the researcher feels that the Committee has been unfair in its consideration of a proposal and/or has not properly understood it;
b) Where there have been any irregularities in the procedures adopted by the Committee. The Chair will convene a meeting of the Committee with the researcher to review the proposal and the grounds for the decision. This meeting should normally be held within ten working days of notification of the appeal. There will be at least two Committee members in addition to the Chair in attendance. At this stage the Discipline Ethics Committee may:
Up-hold its original decision to reject the proposal;
Up-hold the appeal of the researcher and approve the original proposal;
Up-hold the appeal of the researcher but refer the decision until appropriate revi-sions have been made to the proposal.
Following an unsuccessful appeal, and where the researcher is dissatisfied with the decision of the Committee, researchers have the right to submit a final appeal to the University Ethics Committee.
10. Who do I contact for further information?
If your questions concerns readings and resources for developing ethical research practices in geog-raphy, please consult your research supervisor in the first instant.
If you have questions about the formal process of applying for E-Ethical approval please contact the Chair of the Geography Ethics Committee (Gail Davies, [email protected]) or other relevant members of the Geography Ethics Committee (see http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staffarea/ethics/).
