Human research ethics procedures for staff and students
Types of projects
Minimal risk projects – HEAG approval
A quick way to make a preliminary assessment as to whether your research is low risk is to fill out the Expedited Review Checklist for Low-Risk Research Projects. The checklist is available here to download: Expedited Review Checklist (134kb).A research project that presents minimal risk concerning the nature of the project, its research methodology and participants (according to the checklist above) can be approved by the School HEAG.
A Minimal Risk Application should be submitted in THEMIS then seven hardcopies should be printed out and provided to the School HEAG Administrator, Coralie Crocker (email ccrocker@unimelb.edu.au) for review by the deadlines stated on the important dates page.
If your application is approved outright, it will be signed by the chair of HEAG and returned to you, and you can commence research immediately. In most instances, however, the School HEAG will require some amendments. Once these changes have been made, the amended application form should be re-lodged in Themis. Your research can commence as soon as the School HEAG has signed off on your application.
On rare occasions the School HEAG will not agree that your research is low-risk. In such cases it will suggest that you resubmit on a different application form.
Medium or high risk projects – HAPS HESC approval
In cases where the research involves moderate or high risk, or where the funding body, research site or host organisation requires it, you will need to obtain ethics approval from one of the University’s Humanities and Applied Sciences Human Ethics Sub-Committees ( HAPS HESC).Stage 1: Firstly you will need to complete a Standard Project application via Themis, print it out and then submit seven hardcopies to the School HEAG Administrator for the first stage of review before the School deadline for the next School HEAG meeting (see below for deadlines). The School HEAG's role is to "vet" ethical aspects of the study before forwarding the application, together with its recommendations, to the University's HREC for final approval. The School's policy is to subject all applications to rigorous internal assessment such that there are hopefully few rejections or amendments by the HREC. One consequence of this rigorous approach, however, is that a significant proportion of applications submitted to the School HEAG are returned to the researcher with amendments suggested.
Stage 2: Once your application has been revised in Themis and resubmitted to the School HEAG Chair and been signed off on, you should deliver 14 copies of the endorsed application to the Melbourne Research Office (located in the Allan Gilbert Building) for HAPS HESC review. Following this stage of review, the HAPS HESC may ask you to clarify certain aspects of your project or to make some changes before it is given final approval. You will receive written notification from the HAPS HESC administrator advising that the project has been approved. You may then commence your research.
Generally you should allow four to six weeks for HAPS HESC approval after your application has been submitted.
Program application
Application for ethics approval for a program of research involving more than one individual project such as a seminar requiring honours students to conduct interviews (Info to be in an attached document) If the HEAG considers all of the components of your program of research to be low risk, it can approve it without referring the application to the HREC. However a copy of the approved application still must be sent to the HREC for filing and audit purposes. Refer to the Guidelines relating to the Program Application model for more information.Please note, also, that a research program or project has only been approved by the HEAG when the Chair has signed off on the application form. The Chair will only sign off on the application when satisfied that the applicant has made all project amendments required by the HEAG.
If one or more components in the overall program of research exceed the low-risk threshold, the application will initially be 'vetted' by the HEAG but must also be referred to the HREC for final assessment. The HEAG may, of course, suggest that some changes be made, prior to the referral of the application to the HREC. Once the overall program of research has been approved by the HREC, individual projects within the program (see below) can be submitted to, and approved by, the HEAG even if they exceed the low-risk threshold.)