Ethics

Ethics guidelines and procedures

Ethics Guidelines

All research conducted by University staff and students should be performed in accordance with the College’s research ethics framework.

All research conducted by staff at the School of Economics requires ethics approval from the School Ethics Sub-Committee (Research). The Convener is Prof. Mike Elsby.

For research projects by students, including dissertations and class assignments, the students have to actively seek guidance from the supervisor/instructor as to whether they are required to submit an ethics application. If a student expects to collect own data (or ask other people to collect data for them) - whether via an online questionnaire, face-to-face interviews, field study, experiment, and so on, - the student must request the specific ethics guidance in writing (by email) their dissertation supervisor (if relevant) and/or the Research Office. Before proceeding to the collection of such data, it is the student’s responsibility to obtain a formal ethics approval, via a formal ethics application. 

The purpose of the ethical standards embodied in this policy is not to limit research activities, but to promote and facilitate the conduct of all research in ways that respect the dignity and preserve the well-being of human research participants, while maintaining confidentiality.

The guidelines apply to any person or member of staff who conducts or advances research, and includes academics, emeritus, staff, teaching staff, administrators, students at any level, visiting or adjunct scholars, fellows and chairs, paid and unpaid research associates and assistants, whether acting as a principal investigator, a junior collaborator or in some other capacity

Ethics procedures for staff and students

All ethics approvals must be completed through an online form. Please follow the link below and to submit your application. We recommend watching the short explainer video to find out how the online system works before submitting your application. 

Research Ethics, Integrity and Governance application

The BLUE lab has a slightly different procedure for ethics approval. Please refer to the BLUE lab website.