When is human ethics approval needed?
‘Human research’ has a broad definition and includes research conducted with or about people, or their data or tissue. You need ethics approval if you are a University staff member or a postgraduate student and want to conduct certain research activities involving humans. These include, but are not restricted to:
- Gathering information about human beings (and organisations) through interviewing, surveying, questionnaires, observation of human behaviour, audio/video taping, administering tests or stimuli, collecting or using human tissue/bone/blood or other body fluids.
- Clinical trials.
- Using archived data in which individuals are identifiable.
- Study or research in illegal activities.
When may approval not be needed?
Some projects considered to be of negligible risk may not require human ethics review. Contact your
Human Ethics Advisory Group for advice in this regard. Such projects include:
- Undergraduate projects with an education, training, or a practical experience focus do not normally require approval. Student coursework, assignments and essays are also exempt.
- Use of information freely available in the public domain.
- Research about a living individual involved in the public arena (including artists) based exclusively on publicly available information, documents, records, works, performances, public archives or third-party interviews.
- Studies of public behaviour that are purely observational (non-invasive and non-interactive), such as standing in a public place and noting the actions of passers-by. Ethics review is required if the disclosure of recorded observations identifies individuals (names, photographs) and places them at risk of harm, stigma or prosecution.
- Purely observational studies (with no element of intervention) in established educational settings, involving normal educational practices, researching current instructional strategies; or research on the effectiveness of instructional techniques, curricula, or classroom management.
- Testing within normal educational requirements and in accordance with a host institution’s normal practices and approvals.
- Quality assurance/audit projects that do not involve access to or collection of private, sensitive or health data.
- Education, training and practical classes among students, which do not involve students learning through testing procedures on each other.
- Evaluation Cycle Surveys of University staff and students, including student evaluation of teaching.
- Taste and food quality evaluation and consumer acceptance studies, if the food consumed is (i) wholesome without additives or (ii) contains a food ingredient, agricultural chemical or environmental contaminant, for a purpose and at a level declared safe by the relevant national food safety agency.