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Departmental Research Ethics Guidelines

Departmental Research Ethics Guidelines

  1. Ethics approval is needed for all research carried out in the department. Data collection cannot start until ethics approval has been granted. This also means you cannot formally start participant recruitment until you have received an approval letter. Ethics approval for research led by a researcher in the Department of Psychology is reviewed by the Departmental Ethics Committee (currently chaired by Dr. Angela de Bruin). All questions should be sent to psyc529@york.ac.uk. Please read the full ethics guidance before starting any ethics application.

  2. Ethical review often comes down to two key points: reviewing the impact a study can have on a participant and ensuring, where possible, that participants can give full informed consent. An overriding principle here is “do not harm”, meaning that participants must not be left in a worse state after engaging with the research than prior to having been tested. This includes considerations of the participant’s wellbeing, health, values, and dignity.

  3. For staff projects, you can access the ethics application form here. You can also find a template of the ethics form with all questions and with further instructions on this wiki page. Please go through the template first so that it’s clear what each question is asking about.

  4. Projects involving neuroimaging facilities at YNiC (York Neuroimaging Centre) need to be submitted to the YNiC Research Ethics Committee (forms can be found on their wiki page). Where a neuroimaging project includes a behavioural component, this will be processed as part of the YNiC application (i.e., no separate departmental application is needed). Projects involving non-human animals need to be submitted to the Animal Welfare and Ethics Review Body (AWERB, AWERB@york.ac.uk). If your project receives approval from AWERB, please forward your approval letter to psyc529@york.ac.uk

  5. If you want to make any changes to a project after receiving ethics approval, please contact psyc529@york.ac.uk. Small modifications can usually be approved via email, without having to resubmit the ethics form.

  6. Staff ethics applications are reviewed as they come in. They are reviewed by three committee members. We aim to send you feedback within two weeks. This might not be possible if specialists have to be consulted. 

  7. In some cases, a Data Protection Impact Assessment is needed (DPIA). This page provides more information and a screening tool. There is a distinction between situations when a DPIA is required and when it should be considered. The PI should complete the screening tool and decide if a DPIA is appropriate. The data protection team can provide further guidance on this.  Note that if a DPIA is needed, we cannot give ethics approval until the DPIA has been reviewed and approved by the data protection officer.