School ethics committees

Research involving humans and Covid-19

26 August 2021

Researchers should consider using online or remote methods if possible. Any in-person face-to-face research or research involving travel must be permissible, safe, and ethical.

For more information on research involving humans, Covid-19, and the ethical review process, see the interim guidance for research involving humans.

If you research involves the NHS see the Guidance for research involving the NHS.

Researchers must check the University coronavirus information pages and travel and fieldwork guidance frequently and before commencing any activity to ensure they are complying with current requirements:

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: lcw10@st-andrews.ac.uk (Lynn Ayton)	Nicôle Meehan (convenor) Lynn Ayton (administrator) Dr Ana Gonzalez Rueda 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 Helder Ferreira Dr Neil Hazon Professor Christian Rutz Dr Juan Varela
Classics Contact: classicshos@st-andrews.ac.uk	Professor Rebecca Sweetman (convenor) Dr Emma Buckley Dr Alex Long
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	Professor Sabine Hyland (convenor) Professor Mario Aguilar Rev Katrin Bosse Rev Dr Steve Holmes Dr Joanna Leidenhag
Economics and Finance Contact: econ@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Peter Macmillan (convenor) Natalie Lighten (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	Janie Brooks (convenor) Victoria Robinson (administrator) Steven Bartholomew (lay member) Mary Carr Mark Carver Kirsty Duff Alan Duncan John Hughes Eoin Jordan Alison Malcolm-Smith Blair Matthews 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 David McCollum (convenor) Natalie Connell (administrator) Dr Antje Brown (stand-in convenor) 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 Mike Simpson Dr Antonis Vradis Dr Charles Warren
Graduate School Contact: gradschool@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Jeffrey Hughes (main contact)
History Contact: lh@st-andrews.ac.uk (Lorna Harris)	Dr Frances Nethercott (convenor) Lorna Harris (administrator) Prof Andrew Peacock Dr Malcolm Petrie Dr Angus Stewart Dr Akhila Yechury
International Relations Contact: irethics@st-andrews.ac.uk International Relations SEC website	Dr Diego Muro (convenor) Joyce Walsh (administrator) Gillian Brunton Dr Aurora Ganz Dr Kieran McConaghy Dr David Miles
Management Contact: management.ethics@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Boyka Bratinova (convenor) Sam Letham (administrator) Dr Celal Agar Dr Eleanor Burt Dr Hannah Dean Christian Engels Dr Min Li Dr Marcel Lukas Dr Sam Mansell Dr Benet Reid 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 Robert Humphreys Dr Anita Laidlaw Dr Paul Reynolds Dr Derek Sloan
Modern Languages Contact: langsethics@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Emily Finer (convenor) Michael Loudon (administrator) Professor Will Fowler Professor Nicki Hitchcott Dr Elodie Laugt Dr Vicky Turner
Social Anthropology Contact: researchpafs@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Paloma Gay y Blasco (convenor) Lisa Neilson (administrator) Dr Melissa Demian Dr Adam Reed Dr Tom Rice
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	Dr Catharine Cross (convenor) Dr Helen Sunderland (administrator) Dr Justin Ales Dr Sophie Edwards Dr Maggie Ellis Dr Eoin O'Sullivan 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 and Covid-19

Role and remit

For researchers

Contacts and members

Meetings

Monitoring by UTREC

Conflicts of interest