Psychology Ethics Committee
Welcome to our Psychology Research Ethics Committee
Download a copy of the ethics application form.
This page has been put together to guide you through the ethics application process. Within this committee we review and grant ethical approval for any research conducted by fellow members of staff or any of our postgraduate students studying psychology. We also review applications from external researchers wanting to conduct research using our equipment, or those who want to recruit any of our students or staff as participants.
When do I need to apply for ethical approval?
If you are a member of staff or a postgraduate student wishing to undertake any piece of research, then you will need to apply for ethical approval before you can collect your data. Likewise, if you are an external researcher and you wish to conduct some research using our staff, students or equipment, then you will need to apply through this committee to do so.
Exceptions:
- You are a member of staff or one of our postgraduate students conducting research where NHS Research Ethics Committee approval is being sought. In this case, the Chair of the Psychology Ethics Committee only requires a copy of the NHS ethics application and a copy of the approval letter for recording and auditing purposes.
- You are an external researcher and are conducting collaborative research with a member or members of our Psychology staff members and have secured ethical approval for your research at your host institution. However, if you intend to run any research project on University of Derby premises you must get ethical approval from the Psychology Ethics Committee.
- If you are an Undergraduate or Masters student studying here at the university, who is conducting research for an Independent Study. You will be given ethical approval through the Independent Studies ethics committee. Please see your module leader or look at the Independent Study module web page for further information.
Please be aware that you will need to have ethical approval from this Psychology Ethics Committee and be in receipt of your ethics approval from before you can begin to collect any data for your research study.
How do I apply for ethical approval?
You will need to complete an ethics form and return this by email to the Chair of the committee and copying to the Deputy Chair. In addition to this form, you will also need to supply and supplementary information, depending on the nature of your study. This could be copies of questionnaires you wish to use, information sheets, consent forms or interview questions.
The committee meets once a month and there is a deadline prior to each meeting for submitting applications. The schedule of application deadlines and meeting dates for 2013 is given below.
| Application deadline | Meeting date | Feedback to applicants |
|---|---|---|
| Tuesday 11 Dec 2012 | Tuesday 8 Jan 2013 | Friday 11 Jan 2013 |
| Tuesday 22 Jan 2013 | Tuesday 12 Feb 2013 | Friday 15 Feb 2013 |
| Tuesday 19 Feb 2013 | Tuesday 12 March 2013 | Friday 15 March 2013 |
| Tuesday 19 Mar 2013 | Tuesday 16 April 2013 | Friday 19 April 2013 |
| Tuesday 23 Apr 2013 | Tuesday 14 May 2013 | Friday 17 May 2013 |
| Tuesday 21 May 2013 | Tuesday 11 June 2013 | Friday 14 June 2013 |
| Tuesday 18 June 2013 | Tuesday 23 July 2013 | 26 July 2013 |
| No August meeting | ||
| Tuesday 20 Aug 2013 | Tuesday 10 Sept 2013 | Friday 13 Sept 2013 |
| Tuesday 24 Sept 2013 | Tuesday 15 Oct 2013 | Friday 18 Oct 2013 |
| Tuesday 22 Oct 2013 | Tuesday 12 Nov 2013 | Friday 15 Nov 2013 |
| Tuesday 19 Nov 2013 | Tuesday 10 Dec 2013 | Friday 13 Dec 2013 |
You will receive feedback and decision within one week of the meeting. Outcomes are in the form of one of the following decisions from the committee.
- Ethical approval granted in full and you can commence data collection immediately.
- Clarification on certain points or further documentation may be requested. Once you have responded to these points you will receive ethical approval via Chairs action (i.e. the next application will not need to be reviewed by the next committee meeting).
- Substantial review of the ethics application is needed and it needs to be re-submitted to the next meeting of the ethics committee.
- Ethics committee is not able to decide and refers the application to Faculty Research Committee or University Ethics Committee.
- Ethics application is denied outright.
(N.B It is extremely rare for the Psychology Ethics Committee to be unable to make a decision on an ethics application, refer it, or to deny ethical approval outright.)
Once a decision has been reached you will receive an ethical approval form. You will then be able to begin collecting data.
Please submit ethics application forms and direct any enquiries to:
Dr Frances Maratos
Chair of the Psychology Research Ethics Committee
Psychology, School of Science
Faculty of Education, Health and Sciences
University of Derby
Derby
DE22 1GB
Tel: 01332 593053
Email: f.maratos@derby.ac.uk
