Ethics

Before you start your application, mentally 'walk through' your proposed research design and methodology, imagining how it would appear to a person who is approached to be involved in the research. Then plan how you will make sure that you cover the key ethical bases – giving people good information and free choice, protecting their confidentiality (even in the recruitment phase), minimising any negative impacts on them (risk, burden, discomfort, or inconvenience). In particular,consider from the point of view of the potential participants:

1. What would they want to know – in particular, what might they worry about, or think important?
2. How would they feel about what you are asking them to do?
3. What would it be like for them to actually participate?
4. What might go wrong for them – what could turn their participation into a bad experience?

Think about the role and standard concerns of REC members, and how these would apply to your particular research project. Investigate what sorts of ethical issues are common in this type and field of research – speak to colleagues, look in the literature, look at the relevant research ethics guidelines to see if there is something specific about the research methods or participants that you plan to use in this project.

It is part of the role of REC members to assess whether your research methodology is sound and rigorous enough to be able to produce meaningful results. You need to show that you know what you are doing.

1. Show that it is based on a good understanding of the literature, including previous studies – make sure you refer specifically to relevant published studies and appropriate literature.
2. State the aim of the research project clearly and precisely – avoid being woolly, or grand or broad in your application.
3. Show that the methods proposed will be able to achieve the aim.
4. Show that you understand the methods you are planning to use – give clear explanations of the methods of sample selection, data collection and analysis.

1. Show that you take ethics seriously – do not try to cover up, fudge or downplay the ethical issues.
2. Show that you understand the nature of the ethical issues, and use the language that the ethics committee members use. Talk specifically about ethical principles such as confidentiality, consent, voluntary choice, risk/harm etc. This is a translational task to some extent – translating from the often-implicit values language and sensibilities embedded in qualitative research, to the explicit, rather hard-nosed language of research ethics.
3. Describe the strategies you will use, or the design/methods you have adopted, to minimise the ethical problems. Explain why you have chosen these strategies (for example, that you have used them successfully in previous research).

1. REC members are not experts in your particular research field – you need to make it understandable to them.
2. REC members may well assess your ability to explain your research to the participants on the basis of how well you can explain it to them in the application form.
3. REC members will pay particular attention to the lay summary of the project, which you give early on in the application, and to the Plain Language/Participant Information Statement.

REC members may make an assessment of how seriously you are taking the process (and by extension, the importance of conducting research in an ethical way) on the basis of the quality of your application.

1. Pay attention to proof-reading for spelling, typographical errors, and consistency of information.
2. Check to see all the necessary sections are completed, and all additional documents are attached.
3. Beware of cutting and pasting from other applications, or from one answer to another – if you do, check carefully, and make sure the pasted section makes sense in the context, directly answers the question in the application form, and does not contain information that actually refers to a different project.