Guidelines

Ethical clearance from affiliated hospitals | Ethical clearance from another institution | Human Research Approval Notification | Honours and Higher Degree Research | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples | Qualitative Research | Questionnaires and Surveys | Research on students | Research on self

All members of academic or general staff, students enrolled in the University and person(s) in any way associated with or sponsored by the University must ensure that their project has been appropriately approved in advance by the University of Adelaide Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) before engaging in any activity involving human research, including research in hospitals.

Ethical clearance from affiliated hospitals

The University of Adelaide accepts ethics approval for clinical staff members who have been granted approval by one of the following hospital Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC)

• Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH)
• The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (TQEH)
• Children, Youth and Women's Health Service (CYWHS)

Researchers are required to notify the University of Adelaide of these approvals within fourteen days of receiving ethical clearance by completing the online

Human Research Approval Notification form.

Access to the online form is controlled using the same username and password as your University email account. Guidance information is contained within the notification form and once completed it can be electronically lodged. Please contact Sabine Schreiber if you require further clarification or if you need any assistance in using the online form.

Ethical clearance from another institution

If researchers have not received ethics approval from one of the affiliated hospitals (please see above) but have obtained ethics approval from another institution, you must submit an ethics application to the University of Adelaide HREC using the application forms available on this website.

Subcommittees

Subcommittees are established for Anthropology (Honours), Physiology and Psychology to deal with low risk research projects. Researchers should consult with the convenors of these subcommittees regarding the application process.

Honours and higher degree research 

In the case of a student project, the supervisor is to be the applicant with the student named as also involved.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

Proposals to conduct research involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples or communities need to be submitted to the HREC. Researchers should refer to both the:

National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Values and Ethics - Guidelines for Ethical Conduct in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research and

National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007)

Qualitative research

Proposals involving qualitative research methods, for example interviews, focus groups, oral histories, observation and on-line research need to be submitted to the HREC. Researchers should refer to Chapter 3.1 of the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007) .

Research that involves no more than low risk may be eligible for expedited review and researchers should consult the HREC Secretary.

Questionnaires and surveys

Anonymous straightforward exercises in eliciting information, where the intention is simply to gather true reports of facts (including subjects' perceptions of things) and are unexceptional do not require clearance from the Committee. Where the information sought is concealed by some form of "trick question" and the information sought is not the ostensible information, the questioning is of ethical concern. Researchers with concerns about the ethical implications of questionnaires should consult the HREC Secretary.

Researchers anticipating questionnaires on publicly controversial issues (for example, AIDS, IVF) should approach the HREC Secretary for advice.

Research on students

Where exercises are to be performed on students, either as part of a research or a teaching project, written consent must be obtained. It is a matter of judgment for the investigator whether consent is sought from the student or a parent of the student.

Research on self

In general, experiments by a researcher on himself or herself will not be approved, as self-experimentation lacks meaningful informed consent in the manner required. However, where the proposed procedure is in no way dangerous or unreasonable, and where objectivity in the observation of results can be maintained, self-experimentation may be approved.