ETHICS IN RESEARCH

Research Ethics Committee

The Research Ethics Committee (REC)  reviews all research proposals that intend to gather data from or about  living humans and makes the decision whether to grant ethics clearance  or to require amendments or clarifications to the proposal. The primary  role of the REC is educative rather than policing.

The objective of the Research Ethics  Committee is to raise awareness of ethical imperatives and improve  research proposals to meet these imperatives. This educative and  facilitative function is consistent with South Africa's Constitution  which prohibits participation in research without informed consent (s  12(2)(c)). The Committee's function also complies with national  legislation - the National Health Act 61 of 2003 - which defines  'health' very broadly to include the well-being of all humans, and  'health research' as including 'surveys, interviews, focus groups or  ethnographic observations'.

The Law Faculty requires that all  researchers planning to conduct research that will gather data from or  about living humans must apply to the REC for ethics clearance using the  application form below. The application form must be submitted before  the 10th of each month for consideration by the REC at its meeting in  the last week of the month. The REC will review the application and make  a decision whether to grant ethics clearance or to require amendments  to or clarifications of the application. Applicants (and, if relevant,  their supervisors) are encouraged to attend the meeting. The REC sees  its primary role as educative rather than policing.

Ethics guidelines explain the issues  which require consideration when designing a research project and making  an application for ethics clearance. There are both general guidelines  and discipline-specific guidelines; the latter cater specifically for  the types of methodology used in certain disciplines. The Law Faculty  has general guidelines and a policy document (see below) that you should  consult when making application for ethics clearance. For a list of  discipline-specific guidelines see the Faculty of Humanities Guide to  Research Ethics: Research on Human Subjects (pages 26-33). You should  consult these guidelines where appropriate.

In certain cases expedited review may be  obtained for planned research and in other cases research may be  exempted from review. The procedures for such instances are dealt with  below. In all other cases the application should be submitted for full  review by the REC. It should be noted that ethics clearance is granted  for a maximum of 12 months (from date of approval). Should the research  involving human subjects continue beyond this period (or a shorter  period that might be stipulated by the REC) the researcher should apply  for renewal or extension.

Expedited review: If a research proposal  appears to offer no more than minimal risk of harm to human  participants, it may be eligible for review and clearance outside of the  regular ethics application schedule on the basis that full committee  deliberation may be unnecessary. If a researcher believes their planned  research falls into this category they should send an email or letter to  Ms L Viljoen on email: lamize.viljoen@uct.ac.za motivating  why expedited review is appropriate together with sufficient  information (e.g. the proposal) so that a decision can be made by the  Chair of the REC to grant expedited review or refer the application to  the REC for review.

Exemption from review: If research does  not involve human participants in any way then it is not necessary to  apply for ethics clearance. However, certain types of research involve  human participants only indirectly (e.g. review and analysis of  information freely available in the public domain such as newspaper  reports, meta-analysis of published work, etc.), or uses data that has  already been made anonymous, or involves observation of humans who  remain anonymous. In such cases it is probable that an application for  ethics clearance is not necessary but researchers planning to do such  research should inform the Chair of the REC in writing about the  research and provide a brief outline. If the research qualifies for  exemption a letter will be issued to this effect.