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The College requires all research involving human subjects to go through an ethics review to ensure the research meets the international ethical standards set out in the Belmont Report. This also provides an opportunity for students to learn about these standards.
Student projects that require ethics review will be reviewed by the Department Ethics Review Committee (DERC). If this is your first time going through an ethics review, or if you are unsure if your project requires one, do take time to go through this page.
Click here to download the CAPT Ethics Review Application Form. If you require assistance to filling up the form, please see this guide.
Click here to download the CAPT Letter of Agreement from Partner.
Ethics review is procedure where a research involving human subjects have to go through to ensure it meets ethical standards set out in the Belmont Report. The main concern of ethical review is to protect people in general and vulnerable populations especially.
In this context, a vulnerable population is a population that requires additional consideration or protection. Some examples of vulnerable population include students, medical patients, prisoners, children & youths, people with limited citizenship status (e.g. migrant workers), people engaged in illegal activities, cognitively impaired persons, minorities, economically and/or educationally disadvantaged.
To ensure that a research will meet ethical standards, researchers should consider the four points below when planning for the research.
Subjects must be given full information on what the research entails for them and make an informed and autonomous decision to participate in study.
This means that subjects must fully understand, take part of their own free will, and have mental capacity to make the decision to take part in the research. Therefore, researchers have to take into consideration subjects’ intelligence, rationality, maturity and to ensure comprehension.
Researchers must ensure the confidentiality of information collected from subjects.
To do that, researchers have to ensure that names and personal identifiers of research subjects are not disclosed.
Researchers must put in their utmost to maximise benefits and minimise risks to the research subjects.
This means that it is not all right to use people for research unless the research is likely to have some wider benefit. For example, researchers should consider if the emotional trauma abused victims have to go through during/after the interview is worth the outcome of the research.
Researchers should ensure that reasonable, non-exploitative and well-considered procedures are administered fairly and equally.
This means that researchers should establish a fair distribution of costs and benefits to research subjects. To do this, researchers must make sure that subjects are not selected simply because of their easy availability or compromised positions.
You should approach your Supervising Fellow at least six weeks before the proposed start of the project. You may wish to note that applications should be received by the College Office (PDF copies) at least 15 working days before the proposed start of the project.
If you require collection of any form of primary data,
1. before semester starts OR early half of the semester (i.e. weeks 1 to 5), you should submit all documents before the end of previous semester, or
2. during the semester (i.e. weeks 6 to 10): you should submit all documents before week 2 of that semester.
Note: DERC will give an initial response within 10 working days.