Research Ethics
All research undertaken within the School must conform to the University Ethical Policy. It is
the responsibility of all researchers, staff and students, to familiarize themselves with the
content of this policy.
Ethics approval
The lead researcher (i.e., the principle investigator or the supervisor) must decide whether
ethics approval is required and which ethics review procedure is applicable.
In general approval is needed for all research activity involving human participants, personal
data or human tissue. Research should not begin before research ethics review has taken
place and ethics approval granted.
For help selecting the applicable ethics review procedure, please consult: http://
www.sheffield.ac.uk/ris/other/gov-ethics/ethicspolicy/approval-procedure/review-
procedure/how-is-review-carried-out.
Broad definitions of risk can be found here: http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/ris/other/gov-ethics/
ethicspolicy/approval-procedure/review-procedure/assessing-risk.
Application Forms
Research Ethics application forms can be found in the university's site (see link in the right margin).
YA, UG and PGT applications for projects that the project supervisor considers low-risk should be submitted
to the supervisor in two copies: a signed hard copy and an electronic copy.
All staff-led and supervised PGR research as well as distinct high-risk UG and PGT research projects and
generic UG and PGT research projects need to be reviewed by a panel of reviewers. These applications
should be submitted to the Ethics Administrator Claire Leavitt on c.leavitt@sheffield.ac.uk in two copies:
a signed hard copy and an electronic copy.
Procedure
The completed application forms are reviewed internally by the appropriate number of
ethics reviewers in line with the University´s guidance on the review of research. Each
reviewer is required to complete a Comments Form; these are kept and form the basis of
responses to applicants that are sent out by email by the Ethics Coordinator or project
supervisor (see above). In case of student applicants, an electronic copy of the record of
the ethics review outcome is also sent to the University's Research Office.
Please note that lead times from application to approval for an unproblematic application
are approximately 4 weeks. This process cannot be expedited and may well take longer if
revision or amendment of the application is required.
School-wide Review Panel
The School has in place an ethics review panel, designed to act as a forum in which ethical
issues can be raised and discussed. Review Panel members currently are: Prof. Neil Bermel
(RUS), Dr Kristine Horner (GER), Dr Geraldine Lawless (HIS) and Dr Wendy Michallat (FRE).
The reviewers, one from each department, also serve as first points of contact: they can
be approached before the application is submitted with questions regarding ethical issues
that are specific to a discipline or culture. The School promotes on-going discussions between
ethics reviewers and applicants to ensure that the ethics application is suitable before it is
submitted
Contact
For practical queries please contact our Ethics Administrator Claire Leavitt at c.leavitt@sheffield.ac.uk.
For all content-related queries please contact our Ethics Coordinator, Dr Dagmar Divjak at d.divjak@sheffield.ac.uk