Materials to Submit for Research Ethics Board Review

Information and Consent Letters

Every project that involves collecting information from human participants needs a consent/information letter. Such documents inform participants about your project, explain what they will be asked to do as participants and set out their rights and responsibilities.

For more information and a downloadable template, see Informed Consent Guidelines.

Surveys, Questionnaires, Interviews and Focus Groups

If you have surveys, questionnaires or interview guides, they must be attached to your application. 

If you are using an unstructured interview or focus group, attach a list of topics or questions that will be covered. 

Recruitment Posters, Ads, Emails and Scripts

Attach copies of the materials used in the recruitment process to your application. 

You must list your REB tracking number on your recruitment materials. 

For more information and downloadable templates, see our researcher resources. 

Debriefing Statement or Script

A debriefing statement/script must be submitted when researchers are using deception or concealment: 

• Deception is the act of deliberately misleading participants.
• Concealment is the act of keeping information from participants without deceiving them.

This statement/script must be prepared in order to remove any misconceptions about the project that participants may have and to re-establish trust that might have been lost:

• Be sure to explain why the deception or concealment was necessary.
• The participant must be assured that the deception or concealment was neither arbitrary nor capricious.

In the interest of the right to withdraw at any time, participants would be allowed to remove their information from the research once the deception or concealment has been explained to them. 

For more information and a downloadable template, see our researcher resources.

TCPS 2 Certificates

All Laurier investigators listed on the application must attach their TCPS 2 CORE certificates to the application.

The Secretariat on Responsible Conduct of Research (Secretariat) has launched a new version of the Tri-Council Policy Statement 2: Course on Research Ethics (TCPS2: CORE) tutorial, the TCPS 2: CORE-2022. You may find the updated tutorial and further information on their website.

Tutorial Requirements

• The updated tutorial consists of nine modules and a knowledge consolidation exercise.
• This course is self-paced and should take approximately four hours to complete.
• It is possible to complete this tutorial in multiple sessions.
• The modules are numbered with the suggested order of completion but can be completed in any order.
• Each module concludes with a four to five question quiz.
• The final knowledge consolidation exercise consists of 25 multiple-choice questions that are randomly selected from a question pool.

Completion Requirements

In order to obtain the new CORE-2022 certificate of completion, you must obtain 80% correct on the final exercise. You may retake this exercise as necessary. 

CORE-2022 is compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) to ensure accessibility for all users.

While it is advised that all faculty, students, and staff engaging in research with human participants complete this new tutorial as soon as possible, it is not presently a requirement to do so. Laurier’s REB will continue to accept the older version of the TCPS2: CORE tutorial until further notice.

Change Principal Investigator in Student Applications

TCPS 2 defines the Principal Investigator as “The researcher who is responsible for the ethical conduct of the research, and for the actions of any member of the research team at a local site.” Therefore, full-time faculty, contract teaching faculty who are on an active teaching contract, and staff act as PIs on ethics applications.

While they can start and edit all sections of an application, students cannot be listed as a principal investigator (PI) on a Romeo application to the REB. If an application is submitted with a student listed as the PI, the application will be returned for revisions.

If a student generates a new Romeo application, the student will be defaulted to the PI.

The student can draft the application but must change the PI to their supervisor for their review and approval before submitting to the REB. To change the PI to the supervisor:

1. Navigate to the Project Team Info tab of your application.
2. Select “Change PI” in the top left corner of the tab.
3. Search for a full time or contract teaching faculty member or staff member.
4. Click Select next to their name.

Alternatively:

• A supervisor can generate the application in ROMEO and add the student as a student co-investigator or principal student investigator so that the student can fill out the remainder of the application.
• The final approved version must be reviewed, approved, and submitted by the PI (supervisor) in order to be reviewed by the REB.
• This new process will also remove the requirement of students having to submit a screenshot of their supervisor’s approval with every new application.