Ethics Review Board

The purpose of the Department of Sociology’s Ethics Review Board is to help department members meet external ethics requirements and ensure that the department’s research complies with ethical standards. The Department of Sociology’s Ethics Review Board conducts ethical assessments of projects that fall outside the remit of the Faculty of Social Sciences’ [SAMF] Ethics committee. The SAMF committee’s review activities are restricted to research proposals, where the release of external funding is contingent on ethical approval (e.g. reviews of project proposals for the European Research Council).

Application advice to researchers

Please start by reading the Guidelines for researchers formulated by the Faculty of Social Sciences’ Research Ethics Committee. Then, complete the form Application for Ethical Approvement.

There are three different levels of ethical review at the Department of Sociology. Projects may (1) be exempt from ethical review; (2) be eligible for self-certification; (3) require full review by the research ethics committee. For further specification, see the Research Ethics Review Application.

Send your completed application to the Chair of the Ethics Review Board.

Submissions, response times and process

• We anticipate - in most cases - a rapid virtual review and approval process (one month)
• In-person meetings in the Board will be ad hoc and are restricted to ethically complex and demanding submissions. Such submissions will require a longer review time.
• Please address all communications to the Chair of the Ethics Review Board.