Introduction

You will not be able to start data collection on your project unless and until you have ethical approval from the relevant university ethics committee.

For students on taught courses there are, essentially, three kinds of routes to gaining ethical approval :-

1. If you intend to run any form of behavioural experiment on humans then you will need to apply to the Departmental Ethics Committee and the information and forms provided here are relevant to this particular route. 
2. If you intend to test non-human animals then ethical approval is provided by the Ethics Committee in the Biology Department. Dr Katie Slocombe will be able to advise on how to go about this.
3. If you intend to run an experiment at YNiC then you will need to approach your supervisor who will be able to provide the necessary advice about how to gain ethical approval from the YNiC ethics committee.

In some cases it is possible to run EEG/tDCS studies in the department even though, typically, these are carried out in YNiC. If you are intending to do this then you need to follow the instructions contained on this page.

The process

• Step 1 - It is important to read and digest the current Departmental Guidelines. A link is provided in the next section below.
• Step 2 - A link to the form that you will need to fill in and submit to the committee to seek ethical approval for your project is provided below. If you intend to complete a group project then someone will need to take the lead and fill in all the required information. However, all members of the group will need to sign the form. 
• Step 3 - Forward the form to your supervisor as your supervisor will need to sign off on the application.
• Step 4 - Submit the forms via this link: https://forms.gle/81G9EezNgmze9AcZ9

As will become clear, special cases are those that involve :-

1. testing children and/or vulnerable adults
2. making audio, visual and/or audio visual recordings 
3. deception

The committee will closely scrutinise these case and (in cases 1 and 2) you will need to submit additional consent and/or information forms when you submit your application.

To expedite the process and to help the committee concentrate on the sensitive cases you should alert the committee on the ethics form to anything that you take to be a sensitive issue.

Applications are processed at fixed times throughout the year. You will be provided with key dates when these become available and you will be notified of the committee's decisions as soon as possible after the committee has considered all the relevant applications.

To be clear you cannot start data collection unless and until you have the requisite ethical approval. If, after approval is given, you wish to make any (minor) modifications to your project, please contact Dr Angela de Bruin to discuss these changes and to get approval for these modifications before starting data collection.

Links to additional forms, links etc.

A brisk (ppt) intro to Ethics 101 can be found here.