Ethics Review

All research conducted at St. Stephen's College that involves human and/or animal participants must receive research ethics review and approval before research or recruitment of potential participants commences. The Academic Senate of St. Stephen's College requires all ethics review for research conducted by both St. Stephen's faculty and students to be conducted through the Research Ethics Office (REO) of the University of Alberta. The REO and its Research Ethics Boards (REB) thus coordinates all ethics review for St. Stephen's research, and any appeal of an REB decision is in accordance with the Human Ethics Policy and Procedures of the University. The University of Alberta REO has the authority, in accordance with University standards, to approve, propose revisions to, or deny any proposed or ongoing research on the part of St. Stephen's faculty and students.

Applications for ethics review may be accomplished in either of two ways:

1. In most instances, St. Stephen's researchers will submit an application for ethics review through the Alberta Research Information Service (ARISE) online system. Procedures are outlined here and in the St. Stephen's College section of the Getting Started on ARISE webpage. Or,
2. In some instances, St. Stephen's researchers may be required to obtain ethics approval from an institution other than the University of Alberta REO (eg. an educational, health care, or service agency). In such cases, the researcher must submit to the Dean of St. Stephen's College proof of the final research ethics approval received from the REO (or equivalent body) of that institution before commencing research at St. Stephen's College. Please note: St. Stephen's College reserves the right to request review of all research proposals, whether or not approved by an outside institution.

Application Links and Documents

• Application Instructions
• Submit an Application to ARISE
• What to do when Closing a Project?

Proof of ethics approval will be kept in the student's departmental file, along with their research proposal. Ethics approval will typically need to be renewed annually, for as long as the PI and/or study team will be using animals or have direct or indirect contact with the research participants for the study.

Once the research project is complete, the PI must submit a Closing Report through the ARISE system. A Closing Report should be filed when data collection has ended and the PI and/or study team will no longer be using animals or have any direct or indirect contact with the research participants for the study.

Research Ethics Policies and Documents

• UAlberta Research Ethics "About" page
• UAlberta Human Research Ethics Policy and Procedures
• Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS 2)
• Tri-Council Research Ethics Home

Research Ethics Online Training

• UAlberta FGSR Academic Integrity and Ethics Training Requirement Resources (including the Graduate Ethics Training [GET] Online Course  and the Ethics Training Online Suite)
• Tri-Council Course on Research Ethics (CORE) (Direct Link to CORE Tutorial)
• UAlberta Human Research Ethics Training and Resources
• UAlberta Resources for Human Participant Research
• REO Training/Help Videos

Research involving human and/or animal participants that has not been approved by the REO as noted above shall not be undertaken. Failure to comply with this provision on the part of students or faculty may constitute academic misconduct.