Research and ethics guidance

About submitting an application for research ethics approval

Research procedures

On-campus research

Due to the ongoing reorganisation of research facilities in PPLS, it is essential that any new on-campus research study should contact PPLS.studies@ed.ac.uk to confirm that a suitable research room is available, prior to submitting the ethics application.

• PPLS.studies@ed.ac.uk

Off-campus research

All off-campus research, whether conducted locally (in/around Edinburgh), within the UK or overseas requires travel and fieldwork risk assessments which can be found from the link below. These should be submitted to the school for approval by emailing the School Operations Team:

• Travel Risk Assessment
• School Operations Team

All research

All studies and experiments conducted in (human) psychology first must obtain ethical approval in order to protect participants' interests and to maintain academic standards.

The Psychology Research Ethics Committee (PREC) is responsible for ensuring that all research carried out by members of the Psychology department has been subjected to the necessary ethical review. The PREC is composed of 10-12 members of the unit, with their areas of expertise spanning the diverse sub-fields of psychology. Occasionally, the committee will call upon outside individuals if their expertise would help in the review of a particular proposal.

(Old Psychology ethics system: Access for old applications only, all new applications should be submitted to the PPLS Research Ethics electronic application form below).

Ethics application

Electronic application form

All applicants to the PREC must complete and submit this electronic application form.

Electronic application form 

Participant Information Sheet and Informed Consent forms

The upload of a Participant Information Sheet and Informed Consent form is mandatory for your ethics application. The Example Participant Information Sheet and Informed Consent Form may help you in putting your application materials together (note: the example documents represent ideals; perfect compliance is not a requirement for ethical approval, though it might speed things along).

• Developmental/child studies consent template and information sheet (1.45 MB Word)
• Guidelines for Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation (NIBS) studies (4.71 MB Word)
• PPLS experimental study consent template and information sheet (1.24 MB Word)
• Psychology experimental study consent template and information sheet (1.24 MB Word)
• Web experiment consent template and information sheet (1.23 MB Word)

Debriefing and deception

Researchers may find it useful to include a debriefing of the study for participants at the close of the project. The debriefing process is a requirement for studies that employ deception.

• Guidance on debriefing and deception (18.97 KB Word)