Frequently Asked Questions - Ethics

We encourage all colleagues to engage with the online Epigeum training available via Blackboard. The University offers a suite of 21 online training modules split between Research Integrity and Ethical Research which includes modules on research planning, working with human participants, ethics approval processes, overseas research and publication among many others. Two modules “Good Research Conduct” and “Irresponsible research practices” are mandatory for anyone engaged in research – these can be found under the “Research Integrity” link below.

The following are representative of questions either asked during ethics drop-in sessions or emailed to the ethics inboxes. If you have a question, please see if it is answered below. If not, please then email via your College REC email.

1. What is meant by a 'valid application'?

In order to determine whether an application is valid, it is checked against specific criteria (some of which are listed below). This is done using the application triage form. You can download a copy of that form and we encourage you to check this against your application prior to submission and address any issues that may arise.

Notification will normally be given within five working days of receiving the application; invalid applications will be returned to the applicant via e-mail stating the reason(s) for return, and valid applications will be progressed to the review stage. However, applications raising material ethical issues or requiring input from other departments e.g. Health and Safety, Insurance or Office of the General Counsel may take longer. Such instances are rare, however should this apply to your application you will be notified within five working days and a justification will be provided.

Applications that are valid will be allocated for review in accordance with the timescales as stated on the University website as per the process outlined in the College Research Ethics Committee: Terms of Reference.

• Is an ethical review by the CREC required?
• Have all relevant questions/sections been completed?
• Have all relevant persons been named on the form and provided their signature?
• Are all supporting documents provided and have University standard templates been used?
• Have details been provided about how long data will be stored and where?

2. At my qualifying viva, it was suggested I might want to add interviews to my project. Should I add interviews or not?

Questions around methodology and the direction of the project are a matter for the PhD student and supervisory team. The research integrity office can advise as to the ethical aspects regarding certain methods e.g. interviews, focus groups but do not advise on research methodology – this is an academic matter for discussion between the research team, or supervisor and student.

3. I want to interview (target population). What do I need to do? Do I do my ethics first or do the interviews and then get the ethics in place

Any research involving research with human participants, their data or their tissue requires ethical review and approvals must be in place before any data is collected. Guidance on the application process can be found on this webpage. If you collect data without approval, then you will be required to delete the data and this may also constitute research misconduct. The Epigeum module on Good Research Conduct will provide a good overview of this.

4. I wish to travel overseas to collect research data for my PhD thesis. I'm also a citizen of that country so why do I need to do a risk assessment or get approvals for travel?

It is important to remember that the purpose of travel would be on university business i.e. for the purposes of conducting research towards an educational qualification. All staff should be aware of different cultural, legal and other conditions when undertaking research overseas. Risk assessments, along with ethical review will take in to account not just the latest travel guidance but also the requirements for any “in country” approvals needed. Approved travel on university business allows the institution to confirm adequate insurance is in place and also provide support in the event of any emergencies (e.g. if stuck in country due to covid travel restrictions). PhD students should follow the same travel process as staff – please speak to your supervisor in the first instance.

5. I have a collaborator in (overseas country), she wants to share a dataset with me. Is it ok for it to just be sent to me to use?

To use an existing dataset (whether from within the UK or outside the UK) for your research, you will need to apply for ethics approval – as part of the application you will be asked to explain what data you intend to use, where it has come from and whether you require any permissions to use it. It is very important that you are able to prove that consent was given for use of the dataset beyond its original purpose (especially if it was collected for a previous, specific, research project). You may also need to put a data sharing agreement in place, which the integrity team can assist with. Where the dataset relates to human participants, the onus is on you to provide evidence that consent was in place from the participants in the original study to use their data for future research projects.

6. Do you have a list of 'generic statements' that I can put in to my application in relation to data protection?

We understand that colleagues find it useful to have templates to draw upon but data protection is an extremely important issue and all studies are different; as part of your ethics application, you need to demonstrate that you understand your obligations when collecting/using personal data for research and explain to the committee how long you will store the data for, how you will use it and when you will delete it. The University Data Protection Law training is a fantastic resource, and we can help with specific queries.

• Mandatory training
• Personal Data Guidance: Solve

7. What is the difference between a conflict of interest and a power inbalance?

A conflict of interest means a situation in which you could personally benefit from a decision or action taken by you in a professional capacity. The simplest example in a research setting is that you are conducting research which is being funded by a company you have shares/other vested interest in, and the research would likely be of significant benefit to the company. It is important to note that not all conflicts of interest are problematic, but they must be declared to avoid issues or concerns once your ethics approval has been given.

A power imbalance is an environment, relationship or interaction where one party has far more social power and control than the other. This places accountability on the stronger party to act ethically such that they don’t take unfair advantage of their position. The most obvious example of this, in a University setting, would be a situation where a lecturer is trying to recruit their students to take part in their research – it is important that the lecturer considers how they will advertise their study without there being any perceived or real pressure being placed upon students to agree to take part (i.e. do not stand at the door of a lecture theatre and ask your students to decide before they leave the room!). The student may feel worried that if they don’t participate in their lecturer’s study, this will impact upon their degree. It is therefore the responsibility of the lecturer to ensure that their students understand that participation would be entirely voluntary, and not have any impact upon their studies.

8. Why does my ethics application need to be written in lay language? Are experts not reviewing my application?

The ethics committees are made up of reviewers from schools/departments across your College; we aim to assign at least one reviewer from your school/College, but the ethics officer, lay members, Chair or Deputy Chair may not be subject matter experts. It should be possible for an ethical assessment to be made of your proposal without the need for querying specialist/scientific language, and it is helpful to everyone if it is really clear what you intend to study and why from the outset of the approvals process.

9. Why don't you have example ethics applications we can look at?

Ethics applications are incredibly varied due to the fact they are written for a specific project. We are often asked what a “good” application looks like and we’re able to answer this without the need for preparing examples – a good application is detailed, consistent, clear, provides context for each part of your study and also provides reviewers with enough information for an ethical assessment to be made.

Providing example applications which resonate with the diverse research groups we have at Aston will always be very challenging due to the unique circumstances around, for example, participant recruitment, observation, data gathered, data sharing arrangements, funder requirements and dissemination of the research findings. There is also a risk that examples can limit how people think about approaching their research. We encourage you to share your experiences and knowledge gained from the research ethics application process with your immediate research groups as this will help build examples of best practice.

The purpose of our training and our guidance is to empower you to confidently answer questions about the ethical and governance implications of your own individual project. If you are struggling to provide an answer to a specific question in the application you may need to revisit your research planning or your training needs, and speak to your research group or the research integrity office (students are advised to contact their supervisors in the first instance).

10. Why can't I put my start date as next week on my ethics application?

Because you can’t start your research prior to gaining ethics approval, and it will take longer than one week to get ethics approval! It is your responsibility to ensure that you apply for ethics approval in plenty of time.

11. What is the difference between confidentiality and anonymity?

Data which is anonymous is unidentifiable; you should have no way of being able to tell who a person is if the data you hold about them is truly anonymous. Transcripts of interviews are sometimes said to be anonymous, but the content of the transcript could identify a person. You need to think very carefully about whether your data is anonymous before saying it is, otherwise GDPR could apply. Do not tell a research participant that you can guarantee anonymity unless you are very sure that you can. Instead, you may wish to say that all reasonable steps have been taken to maintain anonymity.

Confidentiality means to respect someone’s privacy – data that you tell research participants will remain confidential is data that you will never share without explicit permission.

Even though you may know who has participated in your research, removal of all identifying information means that you are taking all reasonable steps to maintain anonymity, and you keep your participants confidential by respecting their privacy, not sharing their personal data and not revealing to anyone else that they took part in your study.

12. I have ethics approval but I now want to change something - what should I do next?

If you wish to change any part of your research methodology, research team, or any other detail on your research ethics form, you should submit an amendment (please see the ethics web page for the amendment request form) to your Research Ethics Officer. Your research must be paused until the amendment is approved.

13. I'm interested in becoming a member of an ethics Committee, how do I go about this?

Great news! Please e-mail your College REC and we will send you more information.

14. What else do I need to do, other than get ethics approval, before I start my research?

It is important that you check what legal, contractual, financial etc commitments are needed for your research and these must be in place along with ethics approval. You may, for example, need to check you have permission to access your intended participants or check you are permitted to travel to the country where your data collection will take place, otherwise the ethics application process could be significantly delayed.

15. If I have provisional opinion, does this mean I can start to do my research/place my poster/start recruitment?

No. A provisional opinion requires you to address issues that have been raised by a REC before any final ethical opinion is given. As such, your project will not have ethics approval in place and you cannot conduct research without this approval.

16. I'm confused by GDPR, when do I need to think about this as part of my research?

If you are collecting any personal data as part of your research you need to ensure you are storing and using the data in a GDPR compliant manner. You must only keep this data for as long as you truly need it, and you must ensure you comply promptly with any requests to delete this data. Remember, even if you are collecting e-mail addresses at the end of a survey for a prize draw/for contact about future research studies, you are collecting personal data.

For more information about personal data and GDPR, ensure you have completed the University mandatory training and then contact your College REC if you need more support. You may also find the following Solve guides useful:

• Encrypting information
• Information handling, labelling and storage

17. Can I ask my own students to take part in my research?

You can, but you must ensure you think about how you will mitigate against any coercion or perceived coercion by explaining to the REC how any power imbalances will be addressed and mitigated. Consider how you will recruit students, and how you will make it clear that their decision to take part (or not) will have no impact on their academic studies. Your College REC can provide further guidance on this.

18. How long does it take to get ethics approval?

This varies, but largely depends upon the quality of the application, and other relevant documentation, which is submitted. We strongly recommend you take great care and attention when preparing your application, take advantage of all of the training and guidance on offer and respond promptly and fully to questions raised by the committee.

19. I am working on a project with ethics approval from another University. Do I still need approval from Aston?

Where an ethical approval for a research project was issued by another UK based Higher Education Institution, a further (Aston) review is typically not required. However, Aston will undertake a light-touch governance review which involves consideration of the work to be undertaken with Aston staff/students, resources required and any data sharing and/or insurance/indemnity issues. If you are a named co-investigator on such a project, please contact the research integrity team as early as possible.

20. I have a colleague at another university who has asked me to share a research invitation with our staff/students as they need participants - can I send this around?

Requests such as this - on which there is no Aston researcher involvement - require governance review and approval before anything can be circulated. Please contact the research integrity team as early as possible. Further, you should also be considering appropriate mechanisms for sharing these invitations once the governance review is complete – not everyone will wish to receive this information by a direct e-mail (nor may this be permitted).

21. Can I use existing datasets in my research, and what do I need to be thinking about in terms of ethics?

If you wish to use an existing dataset in your research, you need to show you have considered at least the following within your ethics application:

• Do you have permission to access that dataset and if so are there any conditions?
• Can you be sure that, where data was collected as part of a previous research project, that consent exists for re-use of that data in a future research project?
• That you have considered the implications of not gaining informed consent (where you intend to “take” data from, for example, a social media platform).
• Where consent was not required for the purpose of the original data collection, researchers must show consideration of and a commitment to all ethical principles in their planned re-use of the data.

Just because data is ‘out there’ does not automatically mean you can use it for your research. Websites, including social media sites, will include terms and conditions for use of data, and some publicly available datasets also have conditions associated with their use in research.

22. Where should I store my data, and for how long?

Research data should be stored on Box unless there are specific reasons why this is not practical, nor in line with a collaboration agreement (for example). In this case advice should be sought from Digital Services in the first instance, and the Research Integrity Office where appropriate. If Box will not be used for storage of research data, this should be stated in your ethics application with a clear justification.

Research data must be stored and disposed of securely according to the relevant retention and disposal schedule, in accordance with legal, ethical, research funder and collaborator requirements and with particular concern for the confidentiality and security of the data. Records relating to research (e.g. master copies of approved consent forms, information sheets, records relating to ethical approval) should be retained for six years after the date of project closure, in line with the University Records Management Procedures. Research data that underpins published results or is considered to have long-term value should be retained.