Ethical Research

So on Friday, July 1st, I received my first notification of ethics review. Of course I had to address changes and comments about my application, but overall, they were issues that I forgot to do or would have done anyways. There were some important changes that I am glad they brought up though.

I spent the following weekend working and updating my submission to address any comments that were presented. I even found some areas that were missed and changed them to make the entire submission better. Or at least that is what I thought.

I heard from them a couple of days later telling me that I spelled 'organization' incorrectly. I spelled it with an 's' as that is how New Zealand often spells the word (even though they say 'z' as zed). Other than that, I have heard no other word from them. It may also be because I asked them to delete a portion of my consent.

In my application for ethics review, not knowing better, I put down that I would get ethics approval in both countries. I figured it would be relatively straightforward to get approval in Canada and then use that notice to get approval in New Zealand easier. I was under the impression that I could get approval easier by doing so. I sent an email to the New Zealand Ethics Review Committee before I left, but I never got an answer from them until a week and a half ago. In the meantime I went to the chair here and talked to him about what my next steps should be. He instructed me, as he was very blunt, that I may have "screwed myself" by adding the fact I will do ethics approval here, when, in fact, I do not need to; that ethics approval in New Zealand is only important if the Ethics Review Board at the University of Regina deems it to be. He informed me that he would write a letter to acknowledge they are aware of my research and accept the approval from Canada if need be.

I had to email the UofR ERB to request that they delete any mention of getting ethics approval here in New Zealand and to accept my application without requiring it in New Zealand. Now I am waiting to hear back. I can only do so much on my research now before I get ethics approval, so it seems a little can be done in the regard of contacting prospective participants.

I guess next time I should plan a little better or give some more time to get things done. However, I am not overly worried because I have planned for this, believe it or not. I can still work on my side project or work on my environmental manipulations to pass the time. Also, the chair told me that I could write a paper on international ethics approval, as that has been done before. Worth a check perhaps.

#Research #Ethics