Research Ethics Procedures

Policy

All research in the Department is subject to ethics review procedures. The aim of this statement is to make sure that all staff planning to undertake research give consideration to the ethical issues that might arise. All staff are required to read the Department's ethics research guidelines, and to indicate that they have read these, in order to gain ethics approval for their research.

Although the University only requires that ethics approval is obtained once funding is secured, staff are strongly advised to seek approval prior to submitting proposals.

The procedures outlined below are designed to meet the University's Code of Practice on Research Ethics. Data should be handled in a manner compliant with both the Data Protection and the Freedom of Information Acts.

Procedures

Staff planning to undertake a new piece of research are encouraged to consider ethics and consult the various guidelines and forms at an early stage of the development of a project. The Director of Research and the other ethics reviewers in the Department are available to offer advice on these issues.

All new projects undertaken by staff will require ethics approval. This can be obtained by completing a Research Ethics Form. These forms are available on the University´s Research Ethics pages. Completed forms should be sent to the Department's the Ethics Administrator (EA) (a.j.sewell@sheffield.ac.uk).


The completed forms will then be reviewed internally by the appropriate number of ethics reviewers in line with the University´s guidance on the review of research. Each reviewer is required to complete a Comments Form. These are kept and form the basis of responses to applicants.