The REB prefers electronic submissions. Please send your completed forms to REB@wlu.ca. Pages requiring signatures can be faxed to 519-884-7670 or dropped off in person in the Research Office. 

Note: Beginning March 2013 all Laurier investigators listed on an REB application will need to complete the TCPS 2 online ethics tutorial and submit the certificate(s) of completion with their REB application. The online tutorial can be found at: http://tcps2core.ca/welcome

ETHICS REVIEW AT LAURIER

If you are collecting information from people (participants) with the use of surveys, questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, participant or naturalistic observation, experimental methods, or are using secondary data with identifying information, the Research Ethics Board or a departmental ethics review committee needs to review and approve your research project before you collect any information from your participants.

The Research Ethics Board reviews and approves research projects of faculty members and graduate students, while the departmental ethics review committees, for the most part, review and approve projects of undergraduate students.  However, if the undergraduates’ projects are part of a faculty member’s own research program or if the participants are at greater than ‘minimal risk’ by participating, the Research Ethics Board needs to review and approve the project.

If a project has been approved by another REB, please provide us with the documentation that went to the other REB and was approved, along with a copy of the approval letter. You do not need to fill out the Laurier forms (we will work from the other REB's forms in most cases). The project still needs to be reviewed and approved here by Laurier's REB.

If you can't find the form you are looking for below please select "Forms" from the left hand side (ex. Request for Modification).

Step 1:  Read the WLU Research Ethics Policy.

Step 2:  From the list of forms at that link, select the one entitled Request for Ethics Review.  Complete that form.  In it you will describe your project, who the participants are, what you are asking them to do, risks and benefits of your project, aspects of confidentiality concerning the participants and the information they provide, as well as other matters related to the ethics review.

Step 3:  Every project that involves collecting information from people needs an information letter/informed consent statement where you inform your participants about your project, tell them what they will do as participants, and set out their rights and responsibilities.  Write your information letter/informed consent statement.  There are two resources on the ethics web site to help you do that.  First, read the document entitled Informed Consent Statement/Information Letter Checklist; it provides suggestions for dealing with the types of information that is generally included in the information letter/informed consent statement.  Second, at the end of the Request for Ethics Review Form is a ‘Sample Informed Consent Statement’ that you may use as a template for writing your letter/statement.

Step 4:  There are often other documents that need to be attached to your application for ethics review.  For example, if you have surveys or questionnaires, they need to be attached.  If you are telephoning your participants, attach the script for your telephone call.  If you are recruiting participants with a poster or letter or e-mail message, for example, attach a copy of the material used in the recruitment process.  If you are using an unstructured interview or focus group, attach a list of topics or questions that will be covered at the interview or focus group.  If you are a student researcher, you will need to submit the form entitled Confirmation of Supervisor’s or Instructor’s Review, which attests to the fact that your faculty advisor or course instructor has read your ethics application.

Step 5:  Send or bring your documents from Steps 2, 3, and 4 to the Research Office or to the chair of the appropriate departmental ethics review committee.

Step 6:  Assuming that your ethics application is complete, the Research Ethics Board or the departmental ethics review committee reviews it.

Step 7:  The chair of the Research Ethics Board or the departmental ethics review committee sends its comments to the researcher, who reacts to those comments and replies to that chair.

Step 8:  In some cases there may be further correspondence between the chair of the Board or committee and the researcher.  Once the project has been approved, the chair of the Board or committee will send a letter to that effect to the researcher.

Please note that the Research Ethics Board or the departmental ethics review committee must review and approve any changes or modifications to the project that relate to the researcher’s dealings with her or his participants before those changes are implemented.