Ethical Committee Psychology

 

Objective

The ECP checks research conducted by the Psychology Department of the University of Groningen on ethical norms. 

Task

- informing researchers when a research project has to be approved by the Medical-Ethical Evaluation Committee (METC);

- checking all research, that does not have to be submitted to the METC, on ethical norms.

The ECP approval is based on the Law on Medical Research involving Human Beings (WMO) ,  the professional code of the NIP, and the Personal Data Protection Act (WBP) (see also 'Links' in the left upper corner of this page).

 

A request for approval for conducting research involving human beings can be made by sending the ECP-SONA Application Form as an attachment to an email to the Ethical Committee of Psychology (ECP): ecp@rug.nl.  Please, send only one application form per email. Also you are asked to mention the title of your study in de Subject line of the email.

With this application form you can also apply - if intended - for using the online research registration system 'SONA' (to download the application form click here: ECP-SONA Application Form English version  [DOC]or the ECP-SONA Application Form Dutch version [DOC]). 

As soon as your research is approved by the ECP, you will receive an email message from Mrs. Greetje Limbeek (coordinator) about the approval. Count on a period of 10 working days average (two weeks) for a response from Mrs. Limbeek to your request for approval.  

NOTE: The ECP has to approve all human subject research, also research for the Bachelor or Master thesis, also research that will not require the use of SONA (such as research that is conducted as part of the course PSBA2-09). You can use the application form that is mentioned above.

 

Obligation to fully inform participants  

In the menu at the right top under the headline ‘Downloads’ you will find two forms that may serve as an example for an Information Sheet and a Debriefing Form in case participants will be manipulated. These forms are offered by the ECP for your convenience and you can use them to inform participants about your research. It is not obligatory to use these specific forms, but it is mandatory to fully inform participants about the nature, duration, risks/disadvantages of the research before they give (written) permission to be a participant in the research (Informed Consent). Important is that people can make an informed choice to do or do not participate in the research.

To make it easy for you, you can download the forms and use them to summarize all facts of the research. You can clarify the forms verbally to the participants and hand out the forms to them to take home. The contact information on the form makes it possible for participants to contact you after they have participated, when they still have questions or remarks.

 

Obligation to debrief particiopants

If a participant will be manipulated in a research, the researcher is obligated to fully inform the participant afterwards about the nature of manipulation and the reason for it (debriefing). Subsequently, the real nature of the research has to be explained. For this purpose, the researcher can use the Debriefing Form (to be downloaded) as a guide to inform participants about the manipulation in the study.

When studies are manipulated, it is generally not desirable that the real nature of the research is known by aspirant participants. In that case, the researcher may choose to let the participant sign a ‘secrecy time limit’ for the duration of the study (for example: till the last measurement). Although a direct briefing is the most preferable way, there is also the possibility to debrief all participants in one go at the same moment, for instance: sending an email via SONA to all registered participants (only possible when you use SONA).

 

Providing research results

After the research has been finished, it is desirable, but not mandatory, to send the participants a summary of the research results. By providing a summary of the research results, it will become clear to the participants that they really have made a tribute to scientific research, and so paticipants will stay motivated to participate in subject research. This is valuable for researchers of the Heymans Institute, because new knowledge about human behaviour only can be obtained when subject research has motivated participants.

Therefore, the ECP advises you to communicate your research results to participants. For this purpose you can also use the format of the Information Sheet. 

 

 

Members ECP