ETHICAL APPROVAL FORM
Please complete and hand the form to the relevant Course Tutor/Supervisor.
Please note, your form MUST be signed by BOTH you AND your supervisor.
It is useful at this juncture to remind ourselves that, ultimately, ethics is not primarily
about forms: All research has an ethical dimension. Your dissertation and individual
research is an opportunity to potentially locate the reading and thinking you have
been doing throughout your course in a social world outside of the university.
This comes with a responsibility to think about why your research matters, to whom it
matters, and how it matters. The colonial legacy of research, and related issues of
class and power, has left many groups of people mistrustful of social scientific
research, even as new collaborative methodologies are being developed that expand
ideas of participant observation and destabilise the boundaries between observer
and observed.
In thinking about the ethical dimensions of your study you are not only beholden to a
University bureaucracy that decides who is vulnerable, who is accountable and how
accountability, privacy, and confidentiality should be organized. You are also
encouraged to think about the social relations that your own research rests within and
what your responsibilities are as a researcher.
Importantly, you should the ethics procedure as a means of critically engaging with
and thinking about the inter-linked issues of anthropological ethics, literature,
methodology, and practice. It is this critical engagement that you will need to
demonstrate as part of successfully procuring ethical approval.
Department of Anthropology
FORM FOR ETHICAL APPROVAL OF STUDENT RESEARCH PROJECTS
It is essential that you discuss your project, methods and ethical issues with your
supervisor BEFORE submitting this form
THEN complete the questions below, get your supervisor to sign approval,
submit form to relevant administrator UG / PGT /PGR
NAME …..……………………………………………………………………………
DEGREE COURSE ..…………………………………Year of study……………
SPECIFIC COURSE FOR WHICH PROJECT IS UNDERTAKEN
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1. TITLE OF PROJECT AND DETAILS (please give as much detail about your
fieldwork as possible, for example, what will the project involve, where will it be
based, etc)
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2. METHODS: provide detail of all the methods you intend to use: eg whom
you will be interviewing and how you will recruit the interviewees, whether you will
use participant observation etc
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3. Have you read the ASA (Association of Social Anthropologists of the
UK) Ethical Guidelines? http://www.theasa.org/ethics.shtml
YES |
NO
3a. How will you ensure that you abide by these guidelines?
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4. You must ALSO read the UCL GUIDELINES TO ETHICAL
RESEARCH before completing the rest of this form.
Have you read the UCL Research Ethics Committee guidelines?
At: http://www.grad.ucl.ac.uk/ethics/
YES | NO
4a. Does my project fall into an exemption category (as defined by the UCL
Research Ethics guidelines)
YES | NO
If you have answered YES to Q4a, you MUST copy and paste below the relevant
exemption category from http://ethics.grad.ucl.ac.uk/exemptions.php
If you have answered NO to Q4a you will (normally) need to apply to UCL Ethics
Committee for approval of your research project
[ if you think you do not need to apply but you cannot identify an exemption category
please explain why above].
4b. My project has received approval from UCL’s Ethics Committee
YES | pending
| Not applicable
4c. Please describe the population you will be working with - highlighting
whether your research might involve vulnerable groups or individuals such as
children, prisoners, mental patients or other groups that could be considered at risk
or unable to give informed consent? If in doubt explain your doubts
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5. Are you aware of the national Data Protection Act
YES | NO
and UCL’s Data Protection policy?
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/finance/legal_services/data_protection/index.php
5a. Have you informed UCL’s Data Protection Officer?
YES | NO
If so, please provide DP reference number ..................................................…..
5b. How will you ensure that any information you record does not enable participants
to be identified?
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5c. How will you ensure that your research does not place participants at any risk of
criminal or civil liability or damage their financial standing, employability or
reputation?
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I confirm that these details are correct and that I will report any changes in the
project to the relevant Tutor.
Signed ……………………………………………… Date ………………..........…
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Project Approved by Course Tutor / Supervisor
Signed…………………………………NAME………………………… Date……………..
Project Approved by Departmental Ethics Committee
Signed…………………………………………………………… Date……………..