Top tips to get your ethics application approved first time

Top ten tips to get your ethics application approved first time

1. Think through what you intend to do, and make sure you describe it as clearly as you can. Go through it step by step and remember that your reviewers will not know your research as well as you do.

2. Watch out for jargon, acronyms and technical language. Your application should be understandable to everyone, and so should any documents you plan to give to participants (unless you will be interviewing experts in the field).

3. Is your research realistic? Can you achieve what you say you will? Do you have the skills and knowledge to do this research? Will you have enough time?

4. Think about your participants. How are you going to recruit them? Who will be included or excluded? How will you tell them about your research? How will potential participants be able to make an informed choice on whether or not take part in your research – i.e. be able to give ‘informed’ consent? If you will not be looking for informed consent can you justify why? How will this be recorded? Is this the right approach? Are participants able to leave the project at any point?

5. Think about the risks. Almost all research involves some level of risk. This could include to the participants and maybe to you as the researcher. Explain what the risks are and what you will do to minimise the risks or manage the impacts. In some research projects, the risks will be low, or very low. Even if you think this applies to your research, give the ethics reviewers confidence by pointing out what those risks are and what you will do to stop them happening.

6. Think about whether you can make promises to keep your participants anonymous or the information they give you private. Is this realistic, or will they be identifiable in some way? Make sure that this is clearly communicated to your participants.

7. Think about all of the ways you plan to use your data – will you be publishing or presenting your results? Could your research be used in future projects? Do you want to share the information you collect with others or make them available through open access? If that's the case, don’t make promises like ‘after the project, we will destroy the data within three years’; if you think the data might be re-used in the future, make sure you tell any potential participants about this before they agree to get involved with your project.

8. Have you included everything? What about the paperwork that you will show to potential participants – eg information sheets, consent forms, interview schedules, questionnaires, access letters?

9. Make sure you are following with any other legislation that is relevant to your research. Have you thought about the needs of your finders and the Data Protection Act? Do you have to follow healthcare governance rules? Things outside of your research might affect what you can do with your data, so make sure you don't commit to something that you shouldn't.

10. Give yourself plenty of time. An ethics application can be processed in ten working days, but there is no guarantee you will automatically be given approval. Allow yourself time to make any changes the reviewers ask.