Our ethical standards
We are a leading research university committed to maintaining the highest standards of research excellence and integrity.
We uphold the principles outlined in the Concordat to Support Research Integrity (Universities UK, July 2012) and continue to work to further enhance and strengthen our arrangements and research culture in this area.
In addition to our own Code of Good Practice in Research Integrity, we make sure our research complies with ethical principles set out by the Research Councils.
Requirements for all our research
All researchers (staff and students, undergraduate and postgraduate) must ensure their research is conducted according to appropriate ethical, legal and professional frameworks, obligations and standards.
Before you perform any research activity, you must complete an ethics review form via the Ethics@Bath online system and have it reviewed in line with the University's protocol.
This requirement applies to externally or internally-funded research, consultancies and external partnerships as well as other activity being carried out by researchers. This also applies to staff and student research activities.
Any changes to a project for which ethics review has been carried out will require an amendment.
Completing an ethics form using the Ethics@Bath online system
The entire process of filling out, reviewing, signing off the ethics review form and obtaining a favourable opinion takes place online via Ethics@Bath. Guidance is provided within the Ethics@Bath system but it is also published in our ethics portal.
If you need advice on identifying or assessing ethical issues or completing the form, you should contact your DREO.
Find out who to contact with questions about research integrity and ethics.
The Research Governance and Compliance Team can also help and they can be contacted at research-ethics@bath.ac.uk.
Research requiring additional ethical review
Depending on the type of research you are carrying out, your project may require different levels of ethics review.
Prevent considerations
Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000 makes it an offence if a person 'collects or makes a record of information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism'. A modification by the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019 also introduced the offence of viewing or otherwise accessing via the internet documents or records containing information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. There is a defence if the information is used for academic research purposes.
Sections 2 and 3 of the Terrorism Act 2006 outlaw the dissemination of terrorist publications, including by electronic means, and give a very wide definition of 'terrorist publication' and 'statements' that could be construed as encouraging or inducing the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism. Section 2 of the Terrorism Act 2006 has been amended by sections 5(6) and 5(7) of the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019. Academic research is not a defence under the Terrorism Act 2006.
Section 26(1) of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 imposes a duty on 'specified authorities', when exercising their functions, to have due regard to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism. This is also known as Prevent.
In order to comply with the Universities UK guidance and to better enable research in this area procedures for dealing with security-sensitive research have been embedded in the research ethics review process.
Conducting research in line with best practice
For detailed guidance on how to carry out research in line with current ethics and integrity best practice please see our A-Z of research ethics webpage.
Training courses and support
For information about training please click here.