As part of our commitment to supporting the research ethics review processes we have done some updates to the Ethics@Bath system. This means that all users, once logged into the Ethics@Bath system will need to click on 'update' to refresh the form to ensure that they are working on the latest version and are able to submit their forms.
This update will not affect forms which are currently under review by a Committee or through a Departmental level review. All other forms which are yet to be submitted for review will need to be signed off again by the Supervisor/ 2nd reader before they can be submitted for review to a Committee or to a DREO, local panel or pool review .
The updates carried out to date include the release of a new form to allow for amendments to be reviewed within the Ethics@Bath system and small improvements to questions and guidance to aid clarity. Details of the updates are listed below. The Ethics@Bath system will be formally reviewed in April 2024, 12 months after it has been live. There will be opportunities to feedback formally as a survey will be made available to all users. If you have any comments you wish to provide ahead of the consultation we are collating feedback continuously and will include all comments received on our review after April. Please send any feedback or suggestion to research-ethics@bath.ac.uk
New form launched so that amendments to live projects can be reviewed via the Ethics@Bath system
Please see our 'Ethics Process' webpage for more details about amendments and our SharePoint site for our Open House presentation on the same topic.
Other updates to the main form
| Issue | Action | Version |
|---|---|---|
| Information provided by researchers under the research methods section often lacked detail and did not allow for a proper review | guidance improved | v2 |
| Students not clear about whose name should go under 'Lead Investigator | guidance improved to make clear that Students should put their own name in this section | v2 |
| Issues with .eml and .rtf files not displaying properly | clear guidance about the types of documents that can be uploaded published | v2 |
| Some users struggled to complete the PAM steps in the Ethics@Bath form | More guidance about answering the PAM question added | v2 |
| Ethics form did not capture student's course unit code | course unit code added | v2 |
| Nagoya Protocol required some clarifications | question G3.3. revised and further guidance to some questions added | v2 |
| Web links broken | web links in the form and in the guidance sections reviewed and updated where needed | v2 |
| Research declarations not accurate for secondary data and retrospective review | Declaration sections revised | v2 |
| Students able to by-pass supervisor and other sign offs | Fixed | v2 |
| Researchers applying for review via the 'external ethics' workflow not able to declare 'other ethics and integrity considerations' (Section G4) | Section G4 enabled for this workflow | v2 |
| Researchers applying for review via the 'external ethics' workflow not able to upload 'other' documents | Section H enabled for this workflow | v2 |
| Section G's title was confusing for some researchers/reviewers | Section G renamed as 'Research Governance' to better reflect the content of that section | v2 |