Ethics application process

The process has two key parts:

Submission of your ethics application to the Faculty of Education for Internal Review and feedback; and,
Submission of your ethics application to the University of Tasmania Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) for formal review and approval.

Note: BOTH parts are required.

Here's the submission process in more detail:

Step 1
Look at chapter 2.1 in the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research and determine whether you should complete a Minimal Risk or Full Risk application.

Step 2
Complete the Protocol Document (DOCX 16.6 KB) – this needs to be uploaded with your ethics application.

Step 3
Complete your ethics application in the new ERM system. If you are unsure how to navigate the new ERM system, you can look at some helpful support materials.

Step 4

Arrange for an academic peer review of your project to assess its academic merit and provide evidence of the outcomes/feedback in Section 1.12.2 in ERM..

HDR students: confirmation of your candidature can constitute a peer review; however, your supervisors are still required to edit and provide a thorough proofread of your ethics application in the ERM system.

MEd/Honours Students: a peer review of your application should be undertaken by someone who has relevant expertise and who is not named as an investigator on the project. In addition, your supervisors are still required to edit and provide a thorough proofread of your application in the ERM system.

Academic staff: a peer review of your application should be undertaken by someone who has relevant expertise and who is not named as an investigator on the project.

A peer review can take place once you have completed your online ethics application. You will need to click share and then enter the email address of the person who will be undertaking the peer review of your application. Be sure to click the ‘read’ and ‘write’ boxes so they can make comments in your application.

Externally funded research projects do not need to go through the peer review process at Step 4 if the evidence of peer review and outcome has already been obtained during the grant application process and uploaded in Section 1.12.2. Ethics applications for research linked to projects that have been funded for non-research purposes still require academic peer-review.

Step 5

Arrange for ethics review in the School of Education.

Once your ethics application is complete and has undergone a peer review at step 4, rather than submitting the application (at the end of the process), you will need to share it with a Faculty of Education ethics coordinator. You can do this by emailing education.ethics@utas.edu.au in order to be assigned an ethics coordinator.

Once a coordinator has been allocated to you, you can click on ‘Share’ and enter this person’s email address. Be sure to click the boxes ‘Read’ and ‘Write’ so they can read your application and add comments if needed.

In addition, please share the application with education.ethics@utas.edu.au, and tick the box ‘Receive notifications’ so that Education Ethics can keep up to date with the next stages of your review.

Finally, you will need to click on the blue ‘update’ button (directly under the title of your research application) to ensure the latest version of your ethics application is available to be reviewed.

The ethics coordinator will provide feedback to you which you will need to address in your ethics application. You will also need to create a table (DOCX 15.8 KB) which outlines your responses to the feedback which will need to be uploaded in the section 1.12.2. If you submit your ethics application without this document, it will be returned by the HREC office.

Deadlines

Full ethics applications are reviewed by the HREC, which meets weekly, except during certain holiday periods. Please check the Human Research Ethics page for up-to-date meeting information.