Management School Ethics Policy
Sheffield University´s ethics procedures are detailed on Sheffield University´s central ethics website:
Research projects that involve human participants either directly (e.g. interview, questionnaires) and/or indirectly (e.g. through participants providing access to their data (personal or organizational)) have to be ethically reviewed via the University´s ethics review procedure, unless:
- The research involves the NHS, in which case the NHS ethics review procedures apply
Comment:
The NHS ethics review procedure is complex and time consuming. Therefore it is strongly recommended by the Management School that Masters students do NOT undertake projects that require NHS approval. If they do, then there may be a substantial delay of several months before they can start work on their project.
- The research takes place in another country/countries or is being led by another organization (e.g. another university). In this case ethics approval by the other organization or country may be acceptable to Sheffield University. If this route is to be followed, then details of the other organization’s approval should be provided at the stage where an ethics application would other wise be made to Sheffield University. Details of this “alternative” ethics review route can be found on Sheffield University’s central ethics website.
Comment:
Often there will be no suitable ethics review body in the other country, and then Sheffield University’s ethics review system should be used.
Note that ethics approval must be obtained before data is collected. Retrospective ethics approval can only be granted in exceptional circumstances, examples of possible situations are given on the university´s central ethics website.
Completing the ethics application form
The applicant needs to provide enough information so that an informed decision can be made by the reviewers. Providing too little information means that the application will be returned to the applicant for expansion, leading to unnecessary delays. In particular, additional materials such as consent forms and information sheets if they are going to be used, need to be supplied with the application. In the Management School, it is expected that informed consent will be obtained from participants – how this should be done is detailed in Research Ethics Policy Note no. 2 which can be found on the University´s central ethics website.
Applying for ethics approval
The lead researcher (e.g. the principal investigator or supervisor) at Sheffield University is responsible for deciding whether ethics approval is required. For the Management School (apart from the IWP) the process for applying for approval is detailed below.
Details of the approval process in the IWP can be obtained from Dr Malcolm Patterson.
Staff Applications
The lead researcher at Sheffield University should complete electronically the appropriate ethics application form at the University´s central ethics web site – the form can be found at:
They should submit an electronic copy of the form along with any accompanying documents (see the section on form completion below) to:
email : A.Brint@sheffield.ac.uk
They should submit a hard copy of the signature page to the school´s ethics officer, Dr. Andrew Brint.
It should be noted that some funding organizations, e.g. the ESPRC, have additional ethics processes.
Postgraduate Researcher Projects (PGR)
A postgraduate research student should submit an ethics form no later than nine months after their registration to read for an MPhil. Therefore the date entered on the "Application to read for a research degree" form should not be more than 9 months into the future. However an ethics form must be completed sooner if fieldwork will be carried out within the first nine months (as collecting any data from human participants needs to be ethically approved), or if an upgrade is planned within the first nine months (as no upgrade can be attempted until an ethics form has been approved).
The research student should electronically complete the appropriate ethics application form at the University´s central ethics web site – the form can be found at:
They should submit an electronic copy of the form along with any accompanying documents (see the section on form completion below) to:
email : A.Brint@sheffield.ac.uk
They should submit a signed hard copy of the form to the school´s Research Office. If the supervisor decides that research ethics approval is not needed by the project, then the School´s `Ethics Review Not Needed´ form needs to be submitted both electronically and as a hard copy instead. The form can be found in the Downloads section of this page.
Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught Research Projects (PGT)
The student and the supervisor should jointly complete the appropriate electronic ethics application form at the University´s central ethics web site:
They should submit an electronic copy of the form along with any accompanying documents (see the section on form completion below) to:
email : A.Brint@sheffield.ac.uk
They should submit a hard copy of the whole form including the signature page and any accompanying documents to the school´s postgraduate office. These documents should have a school coversheet with a bar code of the students registration number on along with the module code and coursework number.
If the supervisor deems the project high risk as it involves `vulnerable persons´ and / or `highly sensitive topics´, then the supervisor should complete the School´s ethics reviewer form which can be found in the Downloads section of this page, and send an electronic copy to the School´s ethics, in addition to the standard PGT ethics submission. Examples of `vulnerable persons´ include children under 18, people who lack mental capacity and those who feel that they have no real choice on whether to participate. Examples of `highly sensitive topics´ include race, religious beliefs, sexuality and political opinion.
If the supervisor decides that research ethics approval is not needed by the project, then the School´s `Ethics Review Not Needed´ form needs to be submitted both electronically and as a hard copy (including the cover sheet) instead. The form can be found in the Downloads section at the bottom of this page.
Review process
A minimum of 3 ethics reviewers are required to ethically review either a staff-led or a supervised postgraduate researcher project proposal. The reviewers must not have conflicts of interest with the applicants or the applications.
If the applicant is unhappy with the outcome of the review, then they can appeal to the school who will convene an ethics review panel comprising staff who were not involved in the original decision, who will reconsider the application.