School ethics committees

Research involving humans - response to COVID-19

17 April 2020

Until further notice, all research activity involving travel or face-to-face interaction with participants must now stop. See the announcement in full here: Urgent announcement regarding research involving humans (PDF) . This is in line with the approach being taken by the NHS and other institutions. See also the information regarding researchers and fieldworkers abroad.

Research at this time must be conducted using online or remote methods. If that is not possible, it must be postponed.

For more information, see the interim guidance for research involving humans. The guidance includes the types of research that can continue, ethical considerations, making a new ethical review application or amending an existing ethical approval in the current circumstances.

Role and remit

School ethics committees (SECs) conduct the ethical review and approval of research activities within their School that involve human participants, their data or samples. This responsibility is devolved to SECs by the University Teaching and Research Ethics Committee (UTREC) and is subject to monitoring.

SECs can grant ethical approval on the condition that any additional documents or approvals (such as required by other University policies) are obtained before research commences They can also ask researchers to evidence these at a later date or before approval is given. However, the SEC is not itself responsible for issuing, reviewing or approving these items. The researcher is personally responsible for ensuring their research is conducted in line with all University policies, as per the University's Principles of Good Research Conduct (Policy)

For researchers

Ethical applications and any queries relating to ethical issues arising from your research should be directed to the SEC contact for your School (see Contacts and members below).

For students taking a joint honours degree, these should be submitted to the SEC of the School your supervisor belongs to. If your School does not have a SEC, email the UTREC office at utrecmail@st-andrews.ac.uk for guidance.

The ethical review process is detailed on the ethical review application page.

Each SEC must have a minimum of four members (at least two of whom should be permanent staff members). This is to ensure that there are always three SEC members involved in the review of an application, even if one member is excluded by having a conflict of interest.

The minimum number of members required to be present at a SEC meeting or to review an application is three (at least two of whom should be permanent staff).

School ethics committee	Members
Art History Contact: dsw1@st-andrews.ac.uk (Dawn Waddell)	Nicôle Meehan (convenor) Dawn Waddell (administrator) Lynn Ayton (administrator - PG) Dr Agnès Bos Ms Ann Gunn Dr Camilla Mork Rostvik Dr Ulrike Weiss
Biology Contact: bioethics@st-andrews.ac.uk Biology SEC website	Dr Luke Rendell (convenor - human ethics) Professor Patrick Miller (convenor - animal ethics) Lianne Baker (administrator) Dr Helder Ferreira Dr Neil Hazon Professor Christian Rutz Dr Juan Varela
Classics Contact: classicshos@st-andrews.ac.uk	Professor Rebecca Sweetman
Computer Science Contact: ethics-cs@st-andrews.ac.uk Computer Science SEC website	Dr Tristan Henderson (convenor) Wendy Boyter (administrator) Lisa Dow Dr Uta Hinrichs Dr Alexander Konovalov Dr Alice Toniolo Dr Alexander Voss Dr Juan Ye
Divinity Contact: divinitypg@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Eric Stoddart (convenor) Professor Mario Aguilar Rev Katrin Bosse Rev Dr Steve Holmes Joanna Leidenhag
Economics and Finance Contact: econ@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Margaret Leighton (convenor) Pending (administrator) Dr Joao Cunha Professor Roderick McCrorie Dr Matt Polisson
English Contact: ajcg@st-andrews.ac.uk (Andrea Givan) English SEC website	Professor Nicholas Roe (convenor) Ms Andrea Givan (administrator) Dr Lorna Burns Dr Margaret Connolly Dr Sam Haddow Dr Emma Jones Dr Tom Jones Dr Emma Sutton
International Education Institute Contact: ajb31@st-andrews.ac.uk (Janie Brooks) SEC website: Moodle Page	Janie Brooks (convenor) Monica Burns (administrator) Steven Bartholomew (lay member) Alan Duncan Kerith George-Briant John Hughes Jennifer Taylorson
Geography and Sustainable Development Contact: ggethics@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Antje Brown (convenor) Natalie Connell (administrator) Dr Paula Duffy Dr Jo Hale Dr Sharon Leahy Dr Mike Kesby Dr Katy Keenan
Graduate School Contact: gradschool@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Emma Bond (convenor) Miss Katja Schubert (administrator) Mr Brett Dodgson Dr Margaret Leighton Dr Sophie Smout
History Contact: lh@st-andrews.ac.uk (Lorna Harris)	Dr Gillian Mitchell (convenor) Lorna Harris (administrator) Dr Dimitri Kastritsis Dr Christine McGladdery Dr Jacqueline Rose Dr Angus Stewart
International Relations Contact: irethics@st-andrews.ac.uk International Relations SEC website	Dr Diego Muro (convenor) Joyce Walsh (administrator) Gillian Brunton Dr Catherine Jones Dr Luke Middup Dr Vassilios Paipas Professor Ali Watson
Management Contact: management.ethics@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Vicky Ward (co-convenor) Dr Juliette Summers (co-convenor) Sam Letham (administrator) Dr Celal Agar Dr Boyka Bratanova Dr Eleanor Burt Dr Hannah Dean Dr Laurence Lasselle Dr Min Li Shuting Liu Olga Loza Dr Sam Mansell Dr Ralitza Nikolaeva Dr Benet Reid Lemonia Rempoutsika Dr Shona Russell Dr Mao Zhang
Mathematics and Statistics Contact: rmr5@st-andrews.ac.uk (Rhona Rodger)	Professor Andy Lynch (convenor) Rhona Rodger (administrator) Professor Mark Chaplain Dr Richard Glennie Dr Lindesay Scott-Hayward
Medicine Contact: medethic@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Morven Shearer (convener) Gill Rhodes (administrator) Dr Robert Humphreys Dr Anita Laidlaw Dr Calum McHale Dr Simon Powis Anna Robertson Dr Derek Sloan
Modern Languages Contact: langsethics@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Victoria Donovan (convenor) Laura P Ferra (administrator) Professor Nicki Hitchcott Professor Jordi Larios Dr Vicky Turner Dr Claire Whitehead
Social Anthropology Contact: researchPAFS@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Stavroula Pipyrou (convenor) Lisa Neilson (administrator) Alix Harvey (administrator) Dr Ana Gutierrez Garza Dr Adam Reed Dr Huon Wardle
Physics and Astronomy Contact: da16@st-andrews.ac.uk (Dimali Vinthage)	Professor Kishan Dholaka (convenor) Dr Dimali Vithanage (administrator) Dr Andrew Bunting Dr Andrew Morton Dr J Carlos Penedo-Esteiro Dr Cameron Rae
Psychology and Neuroscience (human and animal) Contact: psyethics@st-andrews.ac.uk	Shona Deigman (convenor) Dr Helen Sunderland (administrator) Dr Justin Ales Dr Catherine Cross Dr Maggie Ellis Dr Catherine Hobaiter Dr Eoin O'Sullivan Dr Thomas Otto Dr Sam Pehrson Dr Erin Robbins Dr David Tait Dr Nicole Tausch

SEC meetings occur regularly. For information on dates and deadlines of SEC meetings, email your SEC contact or refer to your SEC's webpage (see contacts section above).

Ethical application forms must be submitted to the relevant School ethics committee (see contacts section above). After submission your application will be reviewed and discussed at the next SEC meeting, and the SEC will respond, providing constructive criticism and advice. The details of the review process are provided on the application page.

If your school does not have a SEC, email the UTREC office at utrecmail@st-andrews.ac.uk for guidance.
SECs have their own procedures in place to ensure continuity in performing ethical review, but are accountable to, and monitored by, UTREC, in the following ways:
- All SEC members must be trained every three years by the UTREC office.
- SECs must upload all applications they approve into a central database run by the UTREC office.
- Summaries of all applications approved by SECs, taken from the central database, are scrutinised by UTREC at its meetings.
- UTREC may request to review the full documentation for any approved application, in the interest of either sharing best practice or investigating a concern, and may invite the researcher(s) or relevant SEC Convenor to speak to the application.
- Members of UTREC or the UTREC office may attend SEC meetings.
Ethical review must be free from bias and undue influence.

This requires that researchers or supervisors are not involved in the review of proposals for which they have a conflict of interest; including the researchers, participants, or organisations related to the proposal. SEC members are responsible for actively identifying and declaring any such conflicts, and ensuring they are not involved in the review of any such proposals.

School ethics committees

Research involving humans - response to COVID-19

Role and remit

For researchers

Contacts and members

Meetings

Monitoring by UTREC

Conflicts of interest