As a researcher, your intended research method or subjects may require that you seek ethical permission. This is mandatory in many fields, for instance in medicine, but also at many academic and other research institutes. Sometimes this is arranged nationally. For instance, in the Netherlands, it is compulsory to have all research that falls under the Medical Research Involving Human Subjects Act (WMO) and/or the Embryo Act (Embryowet) ethically reviewed by a central, national committee, the CCMO if no accredited medical research ethics committee is available.

When it comes to Human Subject Research, most research organizations have their own bodies that give ethical permission. Within the LDE alliance, each university has its own systems in place: at Delft University of Technology, all human subject research must apply for ethical approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee, In Leiden, this is done per department and at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, there are different ethics boards depending on the topic of research and the department. A new trend is also developing in the area of data sharing.

Sharing your research data is more and more encouraged these days, but it is important to also critically examine whether your data can also be abused for Human rights infringements by other parties who are not guided by the same ethical principles as you.

So do check whether or not you need to apply for ethical permission and where. Even if you do not have an ethical committee to apply to for permission, we strongly recommend you follow the guidelines and use the checklists that many institutes have made available online.

[Image:Gerd Altmann Pixabay CC0]

 

When you ask people to participate in your study, it is important that you adhere to the process known as informed consent.

In the informed consent process,  you ensure that all participants and staff involved in the research are given appropriate information about the research, what this will involve, how their data will be processed and stored, and that they understand this information.

Participants are then able to give formal consent and as such volunteer to participate in your research. In an informed consent procedure, you also ensure that participants are aware they can withdraw from the research at any moment and ask to have their data destroyed. Informed consent is typically given by signing an informed consent form such as this template that is in use at TU Delft.

         [Image: Andreas Breitling Pixabay CC0]