Research Ethics

Policy

Introduction
ICE is committed to advancing high-quality academic research while upholding the highest ethical standards. We strive to ensure that research activities, particularly those involving human participants and/or personal data, protect the dignity, rights, health, safety, freedom of expression, and privacy of all individuals involved.

Scope
This ethical requirement applies to researchers at ICE working on research projects, including:

Students from all ICE courses: Master of Studies (partnership courses with ICE), Postgraduate and Undergraduate Certificates, Diplomas, and Advanced Diploma programs. For MSt courses affiliated with a cognate faculty, students may choose to have their research projects reviewed either by their cognate faculty for ethical consideration or by submitting a request form to ICE for review.
ICE staff who are not affiliated with a cognate faculty.

Commitment
ICE promotes research integrity by:

Providing research ethics guidance that communicates key legislation relevant to research ethics in British Universities and highlights best practice;
Supporting the ICE Research Ethics Committee (REC) in conducting ethics scrutiny of research;
Offering support and training to staff and students to enhance their awareness and understanding of research ethics requirements.

Remit of the ICE Research Ethics Committee (REC)

To review research ethics applications for all ICE courses including partnership courses: MSt, PG & UG Certificates, Diploma and Advanced Diploma courses.
To review the ethics aspect of staff’s research project, where staff are not affiliated to a Faculty or Department of the university.
To report to the University Research Ethics Committee (UREC) every year.
To report to the Academic Policy and Operations Committee (APOC) every year or at some specific time in a year as needed.

Research Ethics Application Procedure
If you are undertaking a research project you are required to complete the Research Ethics Approval Form. Doing so will help you identify any potential ethical implications in your research. This will be a useful starting point for a discussion with your Supervisor about how to handle such issues or, where possible, avoid them (e.g. by using a different method).

If your research project involves the collection of primary data (e.g. interview, ethnographic observation, experiment) all questions must be answered and you will be asked to provide a copy of your Participant Consent Form and Participant Information Sheet. For information on academic research involving personal data, and to help you to determine if you are collecting personal data, please see the University’s webpages on Research Integrity here.

If your research project does not involve the collection of primary data, you only need to answer questions in Part A.

The Self-Checklist in the first part of the form can help you assess the risk level of your research project with guidelines provided on where to seek ethical review in the first instance. You can download the Self-Checklist, presented as a flowchart, here to gain an overview of the project's risk assessment.

Your form, along with the outcome of the initial risk assessment, will be sent to your Supervisor for agreement and then submitted to the ICE REC for approval. Once approval has been granted, an email from Quality Governance <qa@ice.cam.ac.uk> will be sent to you and your Supervisor.
N.B. No research may commence without the ethical approval of the REC.

Appeal
Appeals on decisions made by the ICE REC are directed to the Academic Policy and Operations Committee (APOC). In the unlikely event of further appeal, cases will be referred to the University Research Ethics Committee (UREC). The applicant may appeal to the UREC on the following grounds only:

That material circumstances directly related to the case existed, of which the ICE REC and APOC were not aware; or
That procedural irregularities occurred during the review process that could reasonably cause doubt about whether the ICE REC and APOC would have reached the same conclusion had those irregularities not occurred; or
That there is demonstrable evidence of prejudice, bias, or inadequate review.

If the UREC determines that an appeal does not fall within any of the specified grounds, it will dismiss the appeal. Dissatisfaction with the decisions of the ICE REC or APOC alone is not sufficient grounds for an appeal.