RESEARCH Ethics

Submit an Ethics Review Board Application

Who should apply?

• Researchers conducting any research concerning human applicants should apply to the Committee for ethics review. This includes cases where the research involves first-hand interaction with human participants, and, where the researchers only need to take use of pre-existing data or statistics of human participants.
• The principal investigator, the person within the research who holds the grant or funding of the research, should be the one to apply for ethics review.

Time for application

• There is no set deadline for applying for research ethics review, but the Principal Investigator should ensure that research ethics application is made before the research proceeds to the investigation stage. Contact with participants shall be avoided until research ethics application has been made and approved.
• The research ethics review will normally be completed within 1-2 months, and the applicant will be notified of the results thereafter. For more sensitive or controversial applications, review may take up to 3-4 months.

Procedure of application

• Potential applicants should first obtain the Research Ethics Checklist form to see whether the research requires an ethical review.
• If the research is one that requires review, the Principal Investigator should fill in the following forms:
  • Application Form
  • Information Form---in which you need to list out the details and objectives of your research
  • Consent Form---for researches that involve human participants, the investigator shall obtain from participants/their legal guardians informed consent
• The forms should be submitted to the REDAC (redac@sld2000.com) before the ethical review process commences.
• The applicant will receive the results after the review has been completed, and will either be approved or disapproved to conduct the research. In some cases, the Committee may point out concerns in the research, and ask the researchers to revise on those points before approval is made.
• The ethical review process will normally be conducted by two invited scholars in related research field. To ensure fairness, the invited reviewers should not be members of the Committee and will be blinded to the applicants.
• Recommendation for proposal amendment by reviewers - If the research methodology, content or target is to be amended after approval, an application to amend the research should be submitted promptly to the Committee for fresh review. New procedures shall not be conducted until the application has been approved. All amendments, including those researches originally exempted, have to be approved by the Committee.
• Monitoring after approval - The investigators are required to report any development and amendment to the Committee as soon as possible. Any contravention to established research procedures, guidelines, or ethics should be reported to the Committee within 14 days from when the contravention is first discovered or made aware.
• The Committee will continue to monitor whether research ethics requirements are complied with, after the research has been approved. This will take the form of observations, questions and other forms such as progress reports.

For web use:

https://infograph.venngage.com/ps/EbcCVxGWnLI/whowhenhow

https://infograph.venngage.com/ps/pVpfMUavsNE/checklist