Why Ethical Review?
The Principal's Office requires, through the University Teaching and Research Ethics Committee (UTREC), human subject research to be reviewed. More than that, the process is an important opportunity to consider the overall research design of a project, the contingencies for data collection and storage, and methods for ensuring confidentiality and rendering anonymous the identities of respondents. For supervisors it is also an excellent pedagogical tool, enabling the University¿s students to lay the basis for good ethical research which can be carried on throughout their lives. The process is not designed to hinder research. On the contrary it is designed to help people think about the ethical implications of research and to ensure that research is conducted in a manner that affords appropriate protection and is conducted with respect for respondents and third parties alike. The School of International Relations must be at the forefront of engaged social research.
Thus ethical review is intended to be positive. It is not designed to prevent people from conducting sound social research. It is not designed to be the ¿methodological police¿ although methodological concerns may be explored. Similarly, ethical review is concerned with risk, but it is not against research being conducted in dangerous or difficult places, nor does it prevent research from being conducted within difficult or hidden populations. Likewise, the process is not designed to prevent research engagements with difficult, sensitive, vulnerable, or hidden population.
The focus and purpose for ethical review is the protection of research subjects, the researcher and the ethics of the research practice. Most ethical reviews can be conducted in an expedient fashion if researchers design their methods, protocols, and engagements with the wellbeing of their subjects in mind. Even some cases where the connection to human subjects may not be obvious will require review. The outcome, application or connection of archival or historical research may have a direct bearing on communities or individuals so that the implications for harm must be weighed. This does not mean that all archival or historical projects need to be submitted for review, but researchers should think through the implications of their research and the potential applications of their findings.
