The procedures for seeking ethics approval depend on whether you are a staff member, research student (PhD) or undergraduate/masters student. To note, ethical approval must be obtained before collecting any data.
*Note for students in the Educational Research Department only. From and including 18th January 2018 if you are a student in the Educational Research Department you must submit your ethics application to your supervisor for ethical review, instead of the FASS-LUMS Research Ethics Committee. Therefore from 18th January 2018 follow the guidance in sections A,B and C below BUT send your application to your supervisor with this Checklist (for Educational Research students only). From 18th January 2018 students in the Department of Educational Research only DO NOT submit their ethics applications to the Ethics Officer's email address: fass.lumsethics@lancaster.ac.uk. If you have any questions about your application you should contact your supervisor in the first instance because they will review your application instead of the FASS-LUMS Ethics Committee. To note, these arrangements apply to students in the Department of Educational Research only.*
All other applicants (staff and PhD students) should continue to submit their ethics applications to the FASS-LUMS Research Ethics Committee in the usual way by following the guidance given below.
If you are unsure of which route your application should take through the ethics process please contact the Research Ethics Officer, Debbie Knight before you submit your application.
Staff and Phd student projects (funded and non-funded)
A. How to apply to the FASS-LUMS Research Ethics Committee (FASS-LUMS REC):
Before submitting an ethics application you will need to do a risk assessment, if approropriate. Carrying out risk assessments are under the remit of the Safety Office. If you need assistance with completion of a risk assessment you should contact your Area Safety Officer if you are a member of staff and your supervisor if you are a PhD student.
The Application form FASS-LUMS (v02/19) should be used for all projects by staff and PhD students which have not been reviewed by any external research ethics committee. Whether your study is externally funded or not your project needs to be approved by the FASS-LUMS REC prior to the data collection commencing. (To note, if you are a student in the Department of Educational Research your project will need to be reviewed and approved by your supervisor if you are submitting it for review from and including 18th January 2018, please see guidance above*).
If your project is or has been reviewed by another committee (e.g. from another University), please contact the FASS-LUMS Research Ethics Officer for further guidance fass.lumsethics@lancaster.ac.uk.
In addition to the completed application form, you need to submit research materials of direct relevance to your application, see the checklist at the end of the application form for guidance. We recommend that you use the template Sample Participant Information Sheet and Consent form (vFeb2017) as the basis of your information sheet and consent form. If your participants include people with a learning disability, your information sheet and consent form should include pictorial representations of the information you are trying to communicate (Makaton). For more information go to http://www.makaton.org/.
For all sections of the form, be specific but concise in the information you provide. The reviewers on the ethics committee are academics from the different departments in FASS and LUMS. They will not necessarily be from your subject area or discipline, so make sure to avoid subject-specific terminology and be as clear as you can.
Projects involving social media and participants recruited or identified through the internet require full ethics review (we are following ESRC and other guidelines on this).This is in particular the case if the understanding of privacy in these settings is contentious or where sensitive issues are discussed and where quotes and visual images the researcher intends to use may be identifiable. For example, as part of your study you may be using data from an online context that is publicly available. But this does not mean that the participants/members of this context also perceive it to be public. For more advice on the ethics of internet research, see Association of Internet Researchers, Ethical decision making and internet research, Association of Internet Researchers website. Any study involving online interviews, online ethnography or any other use of data from private or semi-private internet sources is considered to involve contact with human participants and therefore needs a full ethics review.
B. What level of review is required for my project?
In order to help decide what level of review your project requires, please consider this question:
Does your research project involve any of the following (1-9)?
- Human participants (including all types of interviews, questionnaires, focus groups, records relating to humans, use of internet or other secondary data, observation etc.)
- Animals - the term animals shall be taken to include any non-human vertebrates, cephalopods or decapod crustaceans.
- Risk to members of the research team e.g. lone working, travel to areas where researchers may be at risk, risk of emotional distress
- Human cells or tissues other than those established in laboratory cultures
- Risk to the environment
- Conflict of interest
- Research or a funding source that could be considered controversial
- Social media and/or data from internet sources that could be considered private
- Any other ethical considerations
If you have answered Yes to any of the above (1-9) you will need to submit an ethics application to the FASS-LUMS Research Ethics Committee for review. (Students in the Department of Educational Research only: submit your ethics ethics application to your supervisor, see guidance above*). If you are not sure whether your project requires ethics review please contact the Research Ethics Officer, Debbie Knight, email fass.lumsethics@lancaster.ac.uk or phone 01524 592605.
C. What happens next?
When you have completed your application form:
1. Attach all relevant materials to your form (see the checklist at the end of the application form for guidance on ‘relevant materials’).
2. Create a single Word or pdf document of all application materials in the order that you will use them (eg application form, followed by invitation letter, participant information sheet, consent form, interview questions, etc).
3. Attach the document to an email and send it to the Research Ethics Officer, Debbie Knight, at fass.lumsethics@lancaster.ac.uk. (Students in the Department of Educational Research only: do not send your application to the Research Ethics Officer; instead, please send your application to your supervisor from 18th January 2018).
4. Projects submitted to the FASS-LUMS REC which involve existing documents/data only or the evaluation of an existing project with no direct contact with human participants will be dealt with via chair’s action.
Depending on their level of risk, projects submitted to the FASS-LUMS REC involving human participants will be reviewed by either one or two reviewers from the REC. The reviewer/s will provide comments and feedback to the applicant and they may ask for any clarification of your application if needed.
Depending on the project and the ethical issues it raises, your application may be discussed by the full FASS-LUMS REC at their monthly meetings and the applicant may be asked to attend this meeting. We will contact you if your application will be discussed at the committee meeting. Please ensure you are available to attend the committee meeting on the day that your application is considered, if required to do so. Committee meeting dates are listed on the FASS-LUMS REC website
You can submit applications at any time. If you have any questions about the ethics process or need assistance with completing and submitting an ethics application please contact the Research Ethics Officer, Debbie Knight, at fass.lumsethics@lancaster.ac.uk.
Undergraduate and Masters projects
UG and Masters coursework and dissertations that involve the generation of data with human participants need to be ethically approved BEFORE any data is generated. Responsibility for ethical review of UG and Masters projects lies within the Departments.
Additional documents
The FASS-LUMS Research Ethics Committee has prepared a participant information sheet and consent form which all applicants are invited to use.
If as part of your study you will employ a transcriber, s/he needs to sign a confidentiality agreement. A sample of such an agreement can be found below.
Download documents for this section:
Amendments to projects
If the design of a research project changes, for example alternative or additional research methods are used or the sample population changes, the researcher may have to apply to the FASS-LUMS REC for further ethical approval. Please use the FASS-LUMS Research Ethics amendments form.
In case you are not certain whether the changes you have made require approval please contact the Committee Secretary or Committee Chair for advice.
Download document for this section:
For any questions about the logistics of the application process or other questions about ethical issues in relation to your research, please contact the Committee Secretary
Debbie Knight
Tel:01524 592605
E-mail: fass.lumsethics@lancaster.ac.uk
Office address: Room D22, FASS Building, Lancaster University
