Departmental Research Ethics Guidelines

Researchers may not start to recruit participants until research ethics approval has been granted. It is essential that all research carried out in the Department has satisfied ethical requirements. Ethical approval, for research carried out by members of the Department of Psychology, is granted by the Departmental Ethics Committee (currently chaired by Dr. Philip Quinlan). However projects that involve neuroimaging or non-human animals are exceptions. The former need to be submitted to the York Neuroimaging Centre (YNiC) Research Ethics Committee, the latter to the Biology Research Ethics Committee.
The guiding principle is that the research should be considered from the standpoint of the participants, and any foreseeable threats to their psychological wellbeing, health, values or dignity must be eliminated from the procedure. The best judges of whether an investigation will cause offence are the participants themselves, and they should be as fully informed as possible about the objectives and procedures of the research.
Typically all participants must complete consent forms as part of the study. However, there may be exceptional cases where “implied consent” is deemed necessary or preferable. The Committee will look carefully at such cases, as seeking explicit consent is taken to be the norm. When explicit consent is sought, the consent form must be administered beforehand. The researcher must retain a copy of the form, signed and dated by the participant. All consent forms must include an explicit opt-out clause, emphasising that participants may withdraw from the study at any time during the procedure without the need to offer an explanation. It should be clarified that participants will not in any way be pressured into remaining in the study if they wish to withdraw. It is essential that participants are told what will be done with the data that are collected and how these will be stored. This should include information about who will have access to the data in anonymised and unanonymised forms.
It is generally the case that informed consent is needed from anyone allowing himself or herself to be photographed, videoed, or audiotaped. However, it may be the case that a study depends on covert recordings being made. If covert recordings are necessary then consent to use the recordings should be sought either from the participant, once testing has ceased, or from a consenting guardian. The participants should understand the nature of the recordings to be used and who will see them. Participants should be told how long the recordings will be retained, how they will be stored, and how they will be disposed of.
Should it be impossible to obtain consent from individual participants directly, for example, from children or impaired adults, special procedures apply. For example, parents/guardians must provide consent for their children to take part in research. Typically, verbal consent should be obtained from the children prior to the start of testing. People wishing to undertake research with impaired adults must comply with the Mental Capacity Act (2005). If the research uses population data maintained by a government agency written consent must be obtained from the head of data management for the agency, agreeing the purpose of the research and ensuring the anonymity of individual participants.
Use of ‘opt-in’ rather than ‘opt-out’ sampling is preferred. (‘Opt-out’ samples are those where participants are contacted without volunteering to take part in the research – and excluded only when they say they are unwilling to participate. In contrast, when ‘opting-in’, participants actively consent to participate.) However, there may be circumstances under which the research would be compromised if opt-in sampling were to be imposed. In such circumstances a case must be made for ‘opt-out’ sampling when seeking ethical approval.
In principle, deception of participants (misrepresenting the purposes and aims of the experiment) should be avoided if at all possible. Deception may be justified if the findings are to be unbiased or uncontaminated by knowledge of the experiment and the expectancies that such knowledge may bring. Any projects, which do involve deception will be closely scrutinised by the Committee, with a view to ensuring that nothing is done that is likely to harm or distress participants.
After they have taken part, and as part of standard practice, participants should be de-briefed about the nature of the research in language that can be easily understood by the participant. When deception was part of the study, participants should be informed about the reason for using deception. Reasons for departing from standard practice regarding de-briefing should be given when seeking ethical approval.
Providing personal results or individualized feedback on any psychological or behavioural measures relating to ability or psychopathology is not permitted (e.g., feedback on IQ, linguistic and mathematical ability, or feedback regarding any tendency towards psychopathology, behaviour or personality disorders, including normal variants of the latter). The same restriction applies to individualized feedback to teachers and parents in studies with children. If participants, teachers or parents ask for personalised feedback, the researcher may point out that as researchers we are not qualified to detect and/or give information about eventual abilities or anomalies. This requires the expertise of professional diagnosticians. Nonetheless, it may be appropriate to include an offer to provide a summary of the results of the study when it is completed.
Somewhat different rules apply to feedback relating to anomalies of a medical nature that are detected in the context of neuroimaging projects. The YNiC Research Ethics Committee has special guidelines and procedures put in place for these cases.
If a researcher intends to follow-up a group of participants once initial testing is complete, consent for this should be obtained prior to initial testing. The Committee should be contacted if further testing is deemed necessary when consent for repeated testing has not been obtained.
Particular issues arise when selecting participants on the basis of extreme scores on questionnaires or tests for a follow-up. Extreme care must be taken to try to ensure that the screened participants do not develop unsubstantiated ideas about belonging to a psychologically special, suspect, or otherwise anomalous group.
If the research involves procedures that could put the researcher at risk, such as interviewing participants from special groups who could present a risk to the researcher, arrangements for ensuring the safety of the researcher must be agreed with the Chair of Health and Safety (currently Dr. Philip Quinlan).
The Department has guidelines indicating whether or not payment should be made for participation, as well as the appropriate rate of payment.
Research involving neuroimaging has to be submitted to the YNiC Research Ethics Committee, currently chaired by Dr. Anthony Morland. When neuroimaging projects involve components of behavioural testing, no separate ethics form needs to be submitted to the Departmental Ethics Committee. The YNiC Ethics Committee is also responsible for examining the behavioural components of neuroimaging studies.
Projects involving research with non-human animals will not be considered by the Departmental Research Ethics Committee. Instead, these projects are to be submitted to the Secretary of the Biology Research Ethics Committee (currently, Dr Pat Coulson (pat.coulson@york.ac.uk). Notifications of approval by the Biology Research Ethics Committee are to be sent to the Departmental Research Ethics Committee for the records.
It is possible that staff links with outside bodies – whether government departments, commerce, industry, or others – may give rise to potential conflicts of interest. It is for individual researchers to assess whether or not their activities could give rise to a conflict of interest, and to disclose these activities to the Head of Department for inclusion in the Departmental Register.
To facilitate the approval process for requests from faculty, researchers and research students, a sub-group of the Departmental Research Ethics Committee meets on a rolling basis to deal with their applications. This sub-group will process applications as they are submitted. An aim is to deliver a decision on such requests within two weeks of submission. Projects of a particularly sensitive nature may require additional time, for example, if consultation with external experts is deemed necessary.
Applications from students on taught courses will be dealt with by the full committee at fixed times throughout the year. Key dates will be announced well in advance of the corresponding deadlines for these kinds of submissions.
Additional and detailed guidance is also available from the BPS (http://www.bps.org.uk/what-we-do/ethics-standards/ethics-standards) and ESRC (http://www.esrc.ac.uk/about-esrc/information/research-ethics.aspx).