Ethics at Manchester
It is important that any scholarship is undertaken ethically. The University of Manchester has a rigorous ethics policy which states that “in general, any research [or scholarship] project should undergo independent ethical review if:
· It has the potential to cause harm, upset or significantly inconvenience a participant
· It seeks confidential or sensitive personal information about a participant or group
· There is an unequal relationship between the researcher and the participant whereby the participant could be seen to be coerced into participation.”
Does my scholarship need independent ethical review?
The University’s ethics website provides detailed guidance about the circumstances in which independent ethical review is required which you should consult. In addition, for any scholarship, you should use the University’s ethics decision tool to help determine whether your project requires formal ethical approval. Important note: please use Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari to access the tool, it is currently not working in Google Chrome. If after using the tool you still have specific queries about your project, please contact research.ethics@manchester.ac.uk.
If ethical approval is required, the ethics decision tool will help determine which of the following five possible routes of ethical review and approval that your scholarship may require:
1. Division/School review: Low risk student projects only
2. Proportionate University research ethics committee (UREC) review: Low risk staff or student projects
3. Full University research ethics committee (UREC) review: High risk staff or student projects
4. Health Research Authority (HRA) approval (including NHS REC)
5. Both HRA and UREC approval
You can find full details about applying for each route of ethical review and approval here and FAQs here
What do I need to do when applying for ethical review and approval?
The two most important things to do are to give yourself adequate time to prepare your application and to read (and follow!) all of the University’s guidance on preparing an ethics application
The University of Manchester ethics process can take between two and six months depending on the type of work you are doing, when ethics review panels are held (which is detailed here), and what actions the panels may require you to take. Before applying to this you will need to have clearly defined your methods (see our Scholarship Methods page), the questions you intend to ask, the mitigations you will put in place to protect and support participants, and have an approved data management plan (more on this here).
In summary, giving yourself at least eight to ten months to plan and prepare for any scholarship will ensure that your work is methodologically rigorous and ethically sound. We suggest a workflow for any scholarship might look like this:
"Do you have any examples of scholarship ethics applications which demonstrate good practice?"
We are compiling exemplars and will share them here in due course.
Read more
What should I expect in the ethical review process?
Once you have submitted your ethical review, your application will go through an initial screening to ensure that your submission complies withUniversity’s requirements. Even with the keenest eye, details around process may have been missed, and you will likely getdetailed feedback at this stage on these kind of elements. Note that the style of feedback may be relatively impersonal but this is to be expected in this process. You will be required to act on the feedback and detail in writing (using a specific format) how you have responded to that feedback.
Once your submission complies with requirements it will go through the appropriate review processes depending on the route of ethical review and approval required. At this stage you may receive further feedback which may scrutinise methodological decisions which the reviewers feel may compromise the ethical status of your scholarship. This is why we strongly advise that before you begin to apply for ethical approval you think carefully about your methodological choices, readall of the ethics guidance(particularly detailed here) and consider the mitigation strategies you can employ to ensure that your application is as ethically rigorous as is possible before it is submitted.
Where can I find further help on scholarship ethics?
The Institute of Teaching and Learning offer a workshop every semester which will cover scholarship ethics, as part of a wider programme of training around scholarship. You can sign up to this here.
The Research EthicsTeam provide further training and resources here, and details of School/Division ethics contacts can be found here under “Guidance on applying for Divisional/School review”.
For technical assistance with the ERM that cannot be resolved with the FAQ or user guides please email research.ethics@manchester.ac.uk
Becoming part of an ethics review panel
All staff, including T&S colleagues, can apply to be part of an ethics panel, as long as they have line manager permission for the time commitment it requires. This will not only help you to understand the ethical review processes, but also to make an important contribution to the University’s rich research and scholarship culture. Opportunities for panel members are advertised on Staffnet and you can also email research.ethics@manchester.ac.uk for more information.