When is ethics review by UREC not required?
University research ethics review is not required when data collection is not for 'research' and when the involvement of human beings is not that of 'participants'. The following is a checklist to determine whether the research needs to come to UREC, please speak to your Faculty Research Ethics Officer if you are in any doubt:
Does your research consist wholly of:
- routine audit, performance review or evaluation conducted by an organisation as part of good practice;
- the collection of data for the purposes of evaluating and educational activity;
- research of contemporary issues in the public domain including public policy issues, national and international events and literary or artistic productions where it involves no interaction with the individuals who are the subject of the study;
- research in which individuals are asked to provide information but in which they are not the subjects of the research (i.e. they are not asked about their own views, attitudes, concerns, interests, behaviour, achievements or anything else pertaining to them as individuals.
A downloadable form is available if you feel your study fits one or more of the above categories, then your research does not need to come to UREC and can be reviewed at Faculty level. NB - it is for the Faculty Research Ethics Officer, not the researcher, to decide whether the proposal requires UREC approval.