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Does your research require ethical approval?

To help determine whether your project requires formal ethical approval, please use the University’s Ethics Decision tool.

Important note: we recommend using Firefox, Edge or Safari to access the tool.

If after using the tool you still have specific queries about your project, please contact your supervisor or the central Ethics Signatory.

Please note, student projects refer to studies that are carried out as part of a University of Manchester degree programme (i.e. Undergraduate, Master’s, PhD, etc) and are supervised by a University of Manchester member of staff. Students are not permitted to seek ethical approval through the University of Manchester for research studies that are not a part of their coursework or programme requirements.

All studies must comply with the University of Manchester’s Research Governance policy and students must not conduct any unsupervised research.

Additional resources available:

Evaluations and Market Research

Evaluations and Market Research

Evaluations are structured processes for accessing the success of a programme in meeting its goals and reflecting on the lessons learned or gaining feedback on a specific platform or application (such as software artefacts).  These can include:

  • course evaluation
  • teaching evaluation
  • service evaluation
  • software evaluation (including user acceptance testing)

Market Research is asking members of the public questions that a reasonable person would agree are not upsetting, distressing or controversial. This normally takes the form of a paper or electronic questionnaire/survey.

The University of Manchester does not normally require formal ethical review for these activities provided the following criteria are met:

  1. The data is completely anonymous with no personal information being collected (apart from their name, their publicly available contact details and a record of consent)
  2. The data is not considered to be sensitive or confidential in nature
  3. The issues being researched are not likely to upset or disturb participants
  4. Vulnerable or dependent groups are not included
  5. There is no risk of possible disclosures or reporting obligations

IMPORTANT: Even if your study does not require formal ethical review, you must adhere to the following guidelines:

Working with Professionals

Work with Professionals

Working with Professionals refers to asking questions of professionals which are strictly within their professional remit.

Please note:

  • The term 'professionals' refers to individuals in professional organisations and does not refer to students or children
  • The phrase 'working with' can refer to conducting interviews, focus groups or questionnaires/surveys
  • The phrase 'strictly within their professional remit' refers to topics strictly within their professional competence and should not include topics that are personal or sensitive (such as their thoughts on the behaviour of their colleagues, information about their pay/benefits or their experiences of sexual harassment or bullying behaviour).

The University of Manchester does not normally require formal ethical review for these activities provided the following criteria are met:

  1. The data is completely anonymous with no personal information being collected (apart from their name, their publicly available contact details, a record of consent and an audio recording of the discussion provided the transcript is fully anonymised and the recording then deleted)
  2. The data is not considered to be sensitive or confidential in nature
  3. The issues being researched are not likely to upset or disturb participants
  4. Vulnerable or dependent groups are not included
  5. There is no risk of possible disclosures or reporting obligations
  6. The subject matter is limited to topics that are strictly within the professional competence of the participants

IMPORTANT: Even if your study does not require formal ethical review, you must adhere to the following guidelines:

 

Autoethnography

Autoethnography

Autoethnography is an ethnographic practice where the main data that is reported and analysed is the researcher’s own experiences.

Most autoethnography is concerned with the researcher’s experiences in relation to various social interactions, or participation in various events, but a smaller subset of autoethnography is based on the experience of solitary activities (i.e. where there is no one else involved in the activity itself other than the researcher).

Prospective autoethnography

Any form of prospective autoethnography, (i.e. autoethnographic research where the researcher’s experiences are either recorded contemporaneously (e.g. in field notes) or already known by the researcher to be a future object of analysis) fall within the scope of the University’s research ethics policies and will require the appropriate level of School/division or UREC approval.

This requirement for research ethics approval includes solitary autoethnography, (i.e. autoethnographic research where it is literally true that only the researcher is involved as a participant and no one else is present at the time of the research).

If you are a member of staff or a student from a Dept/Division/School without a local ethics process and planning on exclusively conducting a solitary autoethnographic study (and are not intending to include any additional data collection measures involving other human participants), please use the updated Prop UREC route, ticking ‘Solitary autoethnography ONLY’.

If you are a student from a Dept/Division/School with a local ethics process, you should consult the criteria and guidance notes from your area in order to determine if you can apply through that route.

If you are planning on conducting other prospective autoethnographic methods or a solitary autoethnographic study that includes other methods of data collection, you should check the usual Dept/Division/School criteria (students only) or Prop UREC criteria in order to determine if the study is suitable for this route. Studies that are not eligible for Dept/Division/School review or Prop UREC review must be submitted to the full UREC.

Retrospective autoethnography

A considerable amount of autoethnographic research is based on analysis of the researchers’ previous experiences/interactions, that are only later identified by the researcher as an object for research. Such retrospective autoethnography is not subject to research ethics review if and only if there was no research project, no prospective research data collection, and no intention to perform research at the time the experiences/interactions occur.

The University does not provide retrospective research ethics approval, and any attempt to redescribe a prospective autoethnography as a retrospective research ethnography in order to avoid research ethics scrutiny will constitute research misconduct and will be dealt with accordingly.

A researcher publishing a retrospective autoethnography must still consider all relevant ethical and legal implications of the publication. 

Secondary Data Analysis

Secondary Data Analysis

Secondary Data Analysis is the re-analysis of either quantitative or qualitative data already collected in a previous study, by a different researcher, normally wishing to address a new research question.

It can also refer to studies in which data collection by an organisation or institution for one purpose is being analysed by a researcher for a different purpose.

The University of Manchester does not normally require formal ethical review for these activities provided the following criteria are met:

  1. The data is completely anonymous
  2. You have explicit, written permission from the data controller to use the data for the purposes described
  3. You are able to prove that the data will be used for a purpose which falls within the remit of the original consent provided by data subjects

Please note, if you are planning on using data collected from social media or other publicly available online websites/forums/discussion boards, please refer to the Guidance on Social Media.

Stakeholder Engagement/Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Work (PPIE)

Stakeholder Engagement/Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE)

This refers to work that is carries out with or by members of the general public, patients, carers, those who use specific services and people from organisations that represent those that use specific services.

It can include working with research funders to prioritise research, offering advice as members of a project steering group, commenting on developing research materials or undertaking interviews with research participants.

Please ensure you read the information bubbles in the Ethics Decision Tool for additional information about these types of activities.

In order to determine if your stakeholder engagement/PPIE activity requires research ethics approval, you need to know:

  1. If the activity is an integral part of a current or future planned research project
  2. If the results of the activity will be disseminated through an academic journal or publication (this includes presenting the findings at academic conferences or publishing the data in an academic or scientific journal)

If the answer to both of these is 'no', the activity will not require University research ethics approval. 

If the answer to one or both of these questions is 'yes', the activity may still be exempt from University research ethics approval providing the following criteria are met:

  1. No special category data will be collected
  2. The topics investigated will not be confidential or personally sensitive
  3. No vulnerable or dependent groups will be involved or engaged in the activity
  4. Dissemination will not make individuals identifiable
  5. The activity will not involve the development of research instruments or interventions

The FBMH Social Responsibility Office can provide support with PPIE activity and have a suite of template documents available, including:


Please visit their website for more information or email the team at srbmh@manchester.ac.uk



 

Human tissue

Human Tissue

Human Tissue studies may involve the collection of new samples, including non-relevant material, from participants or the use of previously collected samples.

The Policy on Compliance with the Human Tissue Act has recently been revised and updated. Please ensure you use the ethics decision tool to verify if your study requires UREC approval. If the tool indicates that UoM ethical approval is required, Prop UREC should only be applied for where no donors will be recruited or new samples collected. If you will be recruiting donors and collecting samples you will require full UREC review.

In all cases, it is a requirement that any researchers storing or using human tissue on UoM's premises register with the Research Governance, Ethics & Integrity Team. If you are storing tissue on the licensed premises of another organisation such as one of the Trust sites, please ensure you follow any local procedures to register your samples with the relevant DI. 

Ethical Exemptions

If your study qualifies for an ethical exemption but you intend to publish the results of your research, you may still be asked for proof of ethical review from a journal or funder. We are able to offer staff and PGT/PGR students formal letters of ethical exemption that can be submitted to journals or funders as proof of ethical consideration by this institution.  

The process for requesting an exemption letter has been streamlined and you should submit your request in the ERM system for most project types (see below for guidance on collaborations and transfers). A short user guide is available to help you complete the request form.  

Please also note that letters CANNOT be issued retrospectively (once your research has started) so please ensure you submit your request before you begin recruitment or data collection. 

We aim to process requests submitted in ERM within 5 working days. 

Collaborations 

The University of Manchester will usually accept the ethical approval received from another UK based higher education instiution in relation to a collaborative project (unless UoM is the grant holder or PI). All collaborative projects of this nature must be vetted by a member of the Research Ethics team however and more information on the specific documents you should email to the Research Ethics Team can be found in the collaborative guidance beginning on page 3. Please note you cannot apply for a letter of ethical exemption through the ERM system for these projects. 

If you are collaborating on a project led by another UK instiution and they have received full NHS REC for the study, you are able to request an exemption letter via the ERM system and should view the user guide linked to above. 

International collaborations usually require ethical approval to be sought and received from the University of Manchester as we cannot accept ethical approvals from non-UK based institutions. Depending on the nature of the collaboration you may be able to seek approval through the Prop UREC. More information on the specific routes of approval and any associated criteria can be found in the collaborative guidance beginning on page 4.  Please note you cannot apply for a letter of ethical exemption through the ERM system for these projects. 

Joining UoM with an ethically approved study 

If you have recently joined UoM from another UK HEI and wish to transfer sponsorship of an ethically approved research study from your former institution to UoM, UoM will usually accept the original approval providing that the study has already started recruitment and/or data collection. 

If you obtained ethical approval at your former institution but the study has not yet started, you will need to apply for UoM UREC approval. If you obtained ethical approval from an institution outside of the UK you will also need to apply for UoM UREC approval. 

All transfers of approved studies from other UK based institutions must be vetted by a member of the Research Ethics Team. Additional guidance information on this vetting process including what supporting documents you should email to the team can be found in section 11.4 (Changes to sponsorship) of the digital handbook 

Please note you cannot apply for a letter of ethical exemption through the ERM system for transfers. 

Research training/coursework

When determining whether your research requires formal research ethics approval, it's important to first distinguish whether you are conducting research training/coursework or research as part of your dissertation/thesis/staff project.

  • Research training is an activity usually conducted as part of coursework in a taught programme in which you collect and analyse a small amount of data in order to gain experience in research methodology, the synthesising of ideas and scholarly report writing.
  • Research is primary data collection or secondary data analysis intended to lead to the advancement of knowledge or understanding in a given subject area. This type of activity in a taught programme is usually reserved for the final dissertation.

When using the University's Ethics Decision Tool, please keep in mind which of these categories your project falls into as it will help you to navigate through the tool successfully.

Please also note, if conducting research training as part of your coursework there are a number of requirements and expectations in relation to how you design your work. In addition to these, your Course Director, Programme Director or Unit Lead may have additional requirements so please ensure you speak with them directly if you have any queries.

In general, activities to be conducted as part of research training must be low risk and adhere to the following criteria:

Participant groups must be limited to one or more of the following

  • Adults who are able to give informed consent in a way that accords with accepted practice
  • Participants in professional roles who will be interviewed about their professional practice. Interviews will be conducted in their work setting.
  • Participant groups limited to peers, colleagues and family members

And all of the following additional criteria must be met

  • The research will not involve vulnerable or dependent groups.
  • The research will take place in public or private locations where the safety of the student can be protected and the privacy of participants can be guaranteed.
  • The research will be conducted with participants inside the EU or an international setting that is not on the list of countries/regions that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office advises against 'all but essential' travel to.
  • The research will not involve the collection of video/photographs of research participants.
  • The research will not require research participants to provide information likely to cause them significant levels of distress.