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Looking from the Outside/In: Re-thinking Research Ethics Review

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Abstract

This paper shares my reflections on the research ethics review process, from the point of view of both a qualitative researcher and a member of an institutional research ethics review board. By considering research ethics review, first as practice, then as policy, as a relationship and, finally, as a performance, I attempt to outline a new vision of research ethics, one that engages seriously with the relationship between receiving ethics approval, and conducting ethical research.

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Notes

  1. Upon receipt of ethics approval by the University, any research that is to be conducted in schools needs to undergo a review process by the district school board. In our case, this process took nearly another 6 months to be completed.

  2. It should be noted that Canada’s Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS) regarding ethical conduct for research involving humans is not a set of regulations but, rather, a set of guiding principles.

  3. As opposed to a productive tension that opens up new epistemological, methodological, etc. possibilities.

  4. draft2e@pre.ethics.gc.ca. The first round for public feedback ended on June 30, 2009. The second round opened in October 2009, and closed in December of that year.

  5. Note that I will use the terms “free and informed consent” and “informed consent” interchangeably.

  6. University of Toronto’s ethics review form states explicitly that written consent may not be appropriate or required, and gives researchers the opportunity either to explain why this may be the case for their project, or to describe the form of consent that is appropriate for their project.

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Acknowledgements

Previous versions of this paper were presented in 2008 at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for Studies in Education, and in 2009 at the Gender and Education Association’s bi-annual conference. I would like to thank my copresenters and the audience members for their interest and constructive feedback.

I would also like to thank Dean Sharpe at the University of Toronto’s Office of Research Ethics for sharing his professional insight and perspectives with me. His comments on an early draft of this article were invaluable.

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Correspondence to Dominique Rivière.

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Rivière, D. Looking from the Outside/In: Re-thinking Research Ethics Review. J Acad Ethics 9, 193–204 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-011-9139-y

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