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Research Involving Humans
University Research Ethics Board
The Research Ethics Board (REB):
- Is responsible for ensuring University-wide understanding of, and compliance with, all applicable external and internal requirements.
- Reviews and provides clearance for all research activities involving the use of human participants or human biological materials prior to research commencement.
- Reports to Senate through the Senate Committee on Research and Publications (SCRAP) and is composed of faculty members, graduate students, community members, and staff.
Who must apply for REB Review?
All research (both funded and non-funded) involving human participants and human biological materials that is considered to be under Laurier’s jurisdiction/auspices must obtain REB clearance prior to commencement.
Includes:
- Research conducted by members or associated members of the University (e.g., Laurier faculty, emeritus faculty, staff, sessional instructors, administrators, students, visiting or adjunct scholars, postdoctoral fellows, paid or unpaid associates or assistants) acting in their University capacity, and research that utilizes Laurier resources (e.g., equipment, e-mail, meeting rooms).
- Course-based research activities, the primary purpose of which is pedagogical.
Tri-Council Policy Statement
The Tri-Council Policy Statement 2: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS2) describes the principles, standards and procedures for governing research involving human participants in Canada. It is the basis for research ethics review at Laurier.
All research involving human participants is governed by Laurier’s Policy 11.13: Ethics Review of Research Involving Humans and requires clearance from the University Research Ethics Board (REB) before any research begins.
As a student planning to conduct research that involves human participants or human biological materials, you must obtain ethics clearance to ensure your research meets all relevant ethical guidelines.
Before You Apply
Plan REB Application Submission Timeline
REB review is a multi-step and ongoing process involving administrative review, initial REB review, resubmission, and review of resubmissions. It is the principal investigator’s responsibility to ensure that the research team is able to meet any time sensitive deadlines and that projects are feasible to complete within restricted timeframes.
Make sure you review the REB's timelines and review process, and plan the submission of your REB application accordingly.
Complete the TCPS 2: Course on Research Ethics (CORE) Tutorial
All Laurier researchers must complete the TCPS2 CORE Tutorial and submit the certificate(s) of completion with their ethics application.
Failing to follow TCPS2 and university policies or guidelines, applicable laws or regulations on research with human participants may be considered as research misconduct and a breach of the Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research and University policy 12.2 Student Code of Conduct: Academic Misconduct. This applies to all research projects involving human participants regardless of funding status. Researchers must ensure that all of their projects that require REB review and approval, receive the REB review and approval prior to commencement of the project, and that the research is conducted as approved by the REB (either via original approval or a modification request). If unsure about whether your project requires REB review and approval you should consult directly with the REB.
Determine Review Process Required
- Departmental Research Ethics Committee (REC) review (includes information about the TCPS 2 Core Tutorial).
- Research Ethics Board review (if your research does not meet all of the criteria for departmental REC review).
Definitions
The following are definitions in relation to research involving humans:
Research is defined as an undertaking intended to extend knowledge through a disciplined inquiry or systematic investigation (TCPS 2, 2022).
Researchers are required to seek REB review and clearance prior to obtaining and/or using this data for research purposes.
Research with human participants and human biological materials includes both primary data collection and the secondary use of data.
Primary data collection includes the of use surveys, questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, observation, and experimental methods to gather data from human participants.
Secondary use of data refers to the use in research of information originally collected for a purpose other than the current research purpose. Examples include:
- Social science or health survey datasets that are collected for specific research or statistical purposes, but then reused to answer other research questions; and
- The use of health care records, school records, biological specimens, vital statistics registries or unemployment records, all of which are originally created or collected for therapeutic, educational or administrative purposes, but which may be sought later for use in research.
Human participants are those individuals whose data, biological materials, or responses to interventions, stimuli or questions by the researcher, are relevant to answering the research question (TCPS 2, 2022).
Human biological materials include tissues, organs, blood, plasma, serum, DNA, RNA, proteins, cells, skin, hair, nail clippings, urine, saliva and other body fluids (TCPS 2, 2022).
Please note that research involving human biological materials may require clearance from the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) if it includes biohazardous materials (e.g., human tissues, cells, blood, and body fluids).
Drop-in Hours and Templates
The Research Ethics Board has several resources for researchers, including document templates that are available on our General Ethics Guidelines and Informed Consent Guidelines webpages.
We are also continuing to offer instructional drop-in sessions to all researchers over Zoom Thursdays 3:00-4:00pm. Weekly sessions will start on August 31st and run until April 11th (excluding December 28, 2023).
Research Ethics and Compliance Contacts
- REB@wlu.ca: General REB inquiries including questions about the Romeo system, application status, application processes, and review requirements
- Una Glisic, Manager, Research Compliance and Strategic Initiatives
- E: uglisic@wlu.ca T: 519-884-0710 x4421
- Contact for: overall operation of Research Compliance and Strategic Initiatives unit
- Jennifer Frayne, Research Compliance Officer
- E: jfrayne@wlu.ca T: 519-884-0710 x4934
- REB contact for: Faculty of Education, Faculty of Social Work, Kinesiology and Health Sciences, Lazaridis School of Business and Economics, Martin Luther University College, Library, and Staff
- Samantha Moeller, Research Ethics Coordinator
- E: smoeller@wlu.ca T: 519-884-0710 x3131
- REB contact for:
- Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Faculty of Music, Faculty of Science (excluding Kinesiology and Health Sciences and Psychology, Faculty of Science new applications)
- Joint Reviews with the University of Waterloo
- Departmental Research Ethics Committees
- Annual/final reports
- Doreen Weise, Human Research Ethics Coordinator, Psychology
- E: dweise@wlu.ca T:519-884-0710 x2991
- REB contact for: Psychology, Faculty of Science new applications (excluding modification requests and annual reports)