Application for Ethics Approval for MSocScP(SCS) Research Projects Tianyuan Li, Chairperson of the PS Departmental Ethics Committee (May 2015)

Review by the Departmental Ethics Committee (DEC), PS DEC Membership: Chairperson and members are appointed by Head. DEC is delegated by Head - to review ethics applications endorsed by supervisors; and - to recommend applications to the Faculty Research and Higher Degrees Committee (FRHDC, FEHD) for approval Enquiries: Miss Helena Tsang, DEC (PS) Secretary,

Student Ethics Application Where to begin? ◦ Departmental ethics application webpage ◦ 37&secid= &secid=2474

Student Ethics Application Documents needed ◦ Application form ◦ Appropriate consent forms and information sheets (e.g., school, parent, participants)  Chinese version also needed if it is the language that will be presented to the participants ◦ (Draft) Questionnaire and/or interview scripts ◦ Research proposal

Procedure Step 1Supervisor to remind student that: - processing time can take 3-4 weeks. For Taught Postgraduate research ethics applications, approval from the Faculty Research and Higher Degrees Committee (FRHDC, FEHD) is required after review by the Departmental Ethics Committee (DEC). - students should NOT start collecting data or asking for participants ’ consent before obtaining approval from the Faculty, and - documents should be downloaded from the Department’s website at Student should read the advice and notes in the application document and reference documents on the web, and consult supervisor in preparing their ethics applications. Step 2Supervisor to review the ethics documents and research proposal prepared by student. Step 3Supervisor to pass the signed application documents to Secretary of the Departmental Ethics Committee (Helena, Soft copy with e-signature is

Procedure Step 4DEC to review and pass feedback comments to student and supervisor for revision. Student is required to use track changes in making changes and pass the revised documents to supervisor. Supervisor to review and forward the documents to DEC for review again. Step 5DEC to review revised application documents. If no further revision is required, DEC Secretary to pass documents to FRHDC (FEHD) for approval. Step 6DEC Secretary to send comments to student and supervisor if FRHDC (FEHD) requests for revision / response / clarification before giving approval. Supervisor to review revised documents first, pass to DEC Secretary for review by DEC, and forward to FRHDC (FEHD) for reconsideration. Approval will be sent to student with a copy to supervisor by: - Faculty Research and Higher Degrees Committee (FRHDC, FEHD) (for Taught Postgraduate research ethics applications)

Time: A major issue! Allow about one month for the ethics application To save time Raise the students’ awareness and help them prepare the documents carefully Only make necessary changes to the templates Draft questionnaire and interview scripts are acceptable as long as experimental procedures will not change in ethically important ways, e.g.: Doesn’t newly ask any potentially sensitive information of the participants (e.g. drug use; sexual activity; etc.), Doesn’t newly recruit children (below age of 18) as participants, Doesn’t introduce new recruitment procedures that could pressure potential participants to participate Doesn’t change anonymity or confidentiality of data (e.g. newly deciding to take videotapes or other recordings)

Common mistakes Information being vague / missing, especially about participants and methodology Number of participants, age range of participants, the way to recruit participants and conduct the study, tasks for the participants, duration of each task, audio/videotape or not, confidentiality/anonymity of the data, etc. Where to store the data? Who can get access to the data? How long the data will be kept for. Information* being inconsistent (initial submission or revision) Consistency between documents: proposal, application form, information sheet, etc Consistency between Chinese and English version of consent form and information sheet * number of participants, duration of task (time commitment), etc. Consent forms and Information Sheets - Mistakes when doing copy and paste. For example, used “your child” in school consent form, used “your student” in parent consent form. - Wrongly placed the names (supervised by [name of student] and conducted by [name of supervisor]) in the forms. - On consent forms, giving information about the purpose of the study, but not giving information about the procedures

Common mistakes Parent consent School consent If there is some kind of potential risk / discomfort or eliciting negative emotion, how to eliminate or minimize More information from the Guideline and FAQs (i) For children aged below 9, only signature of their parents/guardians on consent form is required; completion of the task, after verbal explanation of its nature by the researcher, provides implied consent by the child; (ii) For children aged 9 to 15, signature of both the children and their parents/guardians on consent form is required; and (iii) For adolescents aged 16 to 17, signature of the adolescents on consent form would be required while consent from their parents/guardians is optional for studies involving minimal risk.

Common mistakes Others Application form - PART III, question p “Will the research participant's identity be disclosed if archived tissue samples or personal / medical / social records are used? and PART III, question t “If the study is a medical/clinical research, does the protocol state compliance to declaration of Helsinki ( Normally, the answer to the questions should be “NA”. Some students do not understand the meanings between NA and No. - Part IV, 3a “You will publish this research in the form of … Students should check “Thesis”.

QUESTIONS?