School ethics committees

• Contacts and members

  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:  lcw10@st-andrews.ac.uk  (Lynn Ayton)	Nicôle Meehan (convenor) Lynn Ayton (administrator) Dr Lenia Kouneni Dr Natalia Sassu Suarez Ferri
  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 Neil Hazon Dr Sanna Isojunno (CREEM contact) Professor Graeme Ruxton Dr Sonja Vernes
  Classics Contact:  classicshos@st-andrews.ac.uk	Professor Roger Rees (convenor) Dr Alice Konig Dr Graeme Hawes
  Computer Science Contact: ethics-cs@st-andrews.ac.uk Computer Science SEC website	Dr Erica Ye (convenor) Wendy Boyter (administrator) Dr Ognjen Arandelovic Dr Loraine Clarke Dr Lei Fang Professor Ian Gent Dr Alexander Konovalov Dr Alice Toniolo
  Divinity Contact: divinitypg@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr WiIliam Tooman (convenor) Professor Mario Aguilar Rev Katrin Bosse Professor George Corbett Dr Andrew Torrance
  Economics and Finance Contact: econ@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Peter Macmillan (convenor) Sioban Sharkey (administrator) Dr Joao Cunha Dr Margaret Leighton Professor Roderick McCrorie Dr Radek Stefanski
  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:  ie-sec@st-andrews.ac.uk  SEC website: Moodle Page	Blair Matthews (convenor) Julie Smith (administrator) Steven Bartholomew (lay member) Mary Carr Mark Carver Kirsty Duff Alan Duncan John Hughes Eoin Jordan Alison Malcolm-Smith Kirsty McCall Stefan O'Grady Aaron Rotsinger Amritesh Singh Kerry Tavakoli Lesley Thirkell Lynn Wilson Sin Wang Chong
  Geography and Sustainable Development Contact:  ggethics@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Antje Brown (convenor) Natalie Connell (administrator) Dr Matthew Sothern (stand-in convenor) Dr Jo Hale Dr Katy Keenan Dr Mike Kesby Dr Charlotte Lee Dr Ife Okafor-Yarwood Dr Vanessa Schofield Dr Antonis Vradis
  Graduate School Contact: gradschool@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Jeffrey Hughes (main contact)
  History Contact:  lh@st-andrews.ac.uk  (Lorna Harris)	Dr Dimitri Kastritsis (convenor) Lorna Harris (administrator) Prof Andrew Peacock Dr Malcolm Petrie Dr Sarah Easterby-Smith Dr Akhila Yechury
  International Relations Contact: irethics@st-andrews.ac.uk Ethics - School of International Relations - University of St Andrews (st-andrews.ac.uk)	Dr Kieran McConaghy (convenor) Joyce Walsh (administrator) Gillian Brunton Dr Matteo Fumagalli Dr Sarah Marsden Dr Akali Omeni Dr Norma Rossi
  Management Contact:  management.ethics@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Boyka Bratanova (convenor) Sumit Bains (administrator) Dr Celal Agar  Dr Eleanor Burt Dr Hannah Dear Dr Christian Engels Dr Min Li Dr Benet Reid Dr Philip Roscoe Dr Xi Xi Dr Mao Zhang Dr Song Zhang
  Mathematics and Statistics Contact:  rmr5@st-andrews.ac.uk  (Rhona Rodger)	Professor Andy Lynch (convenor) Rhona Rodger (administrator) Dr Stephen Brooks Professor Mark Chaplain Dr Richard Glennie Professor Clare Parnell Dr Lindesay Scott-Hayward
  Medicine Contact: medethic@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Morven Shearer (convener) Fiona Paterson (administrator) Dr Jo Cecil Dr Iris Cezayirli Dr Paul Reynolds Dr Derek Sloan
  Modern Languages Contact:  langsethics@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Emily Finer (convenor) Michael Loudon (administrator) Professor Will Fowler Dr Sarah Gubbins Professor Nicki Hitchcott Dr Elodie Laugt
  Philosophy, Social Anthropology and Film Studies Contact:  researchpafs@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Paloma Gay y Blasco (convenor) Graeme Hawes (administrator) Dr Melissa Demian Dr Philippa Lovatt Dr Adam Reed
  Physics and Astronomy Contact:  da16@st-andrews.ac.uk  (Dimali Vinthage)	Professor Kishan Dholakia (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	Dr Catharine Cross (convenor, Human ethics) Dr David Tait (convenor, Animal ethics) Dr Helen Sunderland (administrator) Dr Justin Ales Dr Sophie Edwards Professor Julie Harris Dr Eve Holden Dr Daniel McKay Dr Eoin O'Sullivan Dr Sam Pehrson Dr Nicole Tausch Laras Yuniarto

   

• Meetings

  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.

• SEC convenor remit and role

  UTREC expects the following tasks to be undertaken by a SEC convenor, who has to be a trained member of the SEC:

  • For SEC meetings: drafting the agenda, chairing the meeting (ensuring that those with conflicts of interest are excluded from reviewing relevant applications) and finalising the minutes
  • Acting on the SEC’s behalf between meetings when urgent matters arise and when decisions are required
  • Ensuring that the SEC is quorate (i.e. contains a minimum of four trained members), identifying and recruiting new SEC members when required
  • Ensuring that SEC members and administrators obtain appropriate training
  • Raising awareness of importance of ethical issues within their School and the relation of ethical approval to research integrity, liaising with the Director of Research as appropriate
  • Referring applicants who have repeatedly incurred avoidable burden on SEC members' time to applicant training, liaising with the Director of Research and Head of School as appropriate
  • Organising a handover with the new SEC Convenor and UTREC office when demitting
  • Ensuring the UTREC office are kept up to date with changes in the SEC membership
  • Responding to, or circulating onward, communications from the UTREC office.

• Monitoring by UTREC

  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.

• Conflicts of interest

  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.