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The Research Ethics Board (REB):
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:
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.
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.
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.
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:
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).
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).
Contact Us:
REB General Inquiries
E:
REB@wlu.ca
Office Location: Alumni Hall
Office Hours:
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.