Further information:
NSSP-REC Committee members:
Head of School: Professor Saul Becker
Director of Research: Professor Stephen Joseph
Director of Postgraduate Research: Dr Amal Treacher Kabesh
Director of Undergraduate Studies: Professor Julia O’Connell Davidson
Deputy Head of School: Professor Bruce Stafford
Lay member: Kate Wilson
Cross-faculty member: Kate Millar (tbc)
Secretary – Alison Haigh
Ethical review (and approval) is required for all projects where the research involves
participation of human subjects, their data and/or their tissue (EVEN where the
applicant indicates that there is only MINIMAL RISK; on minimal risk see list below).
For undergraduate and postgraduate (both taught and research) student applications,
the applicant’s research ethics review submission should be signed by the applicant’s
supervisor in addition to the student themselves. For staff research projects, the
Principal Investigator of the project must sign the research ethics submission. All
applications must be submitted to the REC.
In some instances module convenors can sign ethics forms for entire groups. They
should pass information on what has been approved on to their students.
For more guidance PLEASE READ the University’s guidance on research ethics.
Additional guidance can be found by consulting the University, ESRC or BSA codes of conduct. See
also the Research Councils UK Code of Conduct and Policy on the Governance of Good Research
Conduct.
Principal Investigators will also be aware that most funding bodies require submission for ethical
approval at least once during the lifetime of a project. For more information visit the guidance
provided by the Centre for Advanced Studies.
Do NOT avoid submission just to save time, or to avoid objections that the Ethics Committee might
raise. You may be called upon to defend that judgement and you will not have the cover of liability
or insurance provided by the university for approved research.
Independently of the Ethics Committee procedures, Principal Investigators or supervisors retain
responsibility for the risk assessment of projects.
You are also responsible for the storage and archiving of data and completed consent forms in
accordance with the Data Protection Act.
We aim to deal with most submissions that go beyond minimal risk within two weeks but there can
be longer delays when we have to deal with large numbers of student projects or complex
submissions.
Before submission, please read the guidance provided on the School’s Ethics Checklist.
Please also refer to your student handbooks for further guidance, as well as guidelines provided by
research funders, such as research councils, the NHS, local authorities, government departments
and so on.
Further useful information:
Useful information on safeguarding children and vulnerable adults can be found here. This
information was created for students of Education but still contains relevant information for those
working with children or vulnerable adults, such as a link to the Criminal Records Bureau website.
A list of books and articles on research ethics can be found here. Again the focus is on education
but the list contains many entries that apply equally to social science research and are worth
looking at.
An exploratory paper examining the ethical issues of doing social science research in developing
countries can be found here.
Another paper exploring the ethics issues of ‘visual’ research can be found here.
If you have any suggestions for additions to this list, please contact Brigitte.
More than minimal risk, according to the ESRC Ethics Framework