Research Ethics

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The Research Ethics Policy aims to promote a culture within the School whereby researchers conscientiously reflect on the ethical implications of their research.

Researchers in the social sciences have responsibilities - in the first instance to the people from whom the researcher is gathering data (the research participants), but also to society at large, to those who fund their research, to the institutions that employ them or at which they study, to their colleagues and the wider academic and research community, and also for their own safety and wellbeing. Reconciling those responsibilities can be difficult and may entail ethical judgement.

Researchers should familiarise themselves with the School’s Research Ethics Policy and Code of Research Conduct. These policies form part of the School's over-arching Ethics Code.

Our Research ethics review in a nutshell provides a short overview of the ethics review procedure. Guidance on how to complete your review and a link to the online ethics submission system can be found here.

The research ethics policy and procedures are overseen by the Research Ethics Committee and supported by Lyn Grove and Myriam Fellous-Sigrist.

Ethics review/approval is required for any research involving:
• Collection of data from participants, e.g. via interviews, surveys, focus groups, experiments, observations, etc.
• User generated data (e.g. from discussion forums, social media, vlogs, blogs, comments on posts or articles)
• The collection or use of any personal data/identifiable information (e.g. names, email addresses, IP addresses, social media profiles or meta-data, visual material, etc.). However, research that will only use data from publicly available archival records (including newspapers) does not require ethics review (unless there are other reasons why it may give rise to ethical issues)
• Any other information that could identify a living individual (or potentially lead to their identification). For example: where information from micro datasets, if combined, could lead to the identification of individuals; or where an online search for particular wording could lead to the identification of an individual
• If findings/conclusions/publication could have damaging repercussions for any individuals (reputation, stigma, bullying) or groups with protected characteristics
• Any other reason why the research might raise ethical issues.

Guidance on how to complete your review and a link to the online ethics submission system can be found here.

Please see the LSE guidance on informed consent which includes three example participant information sheet/consent forms you can use as a template. Word versions of the templates can be found here.

If your research participants are children or young people, please see our advice on how to seek their consent in the LSE Guidance on working with children and other vulnerable groups.

See our "What is consent?" to understand the difference between consent in terms of ethics versus consent for data protection purposes

If you plan to use data from the internet or social media in your research please see the LSE guidance document 'Using data from the internet and social media in research: ethics & consent'.

All researchers (whether staff or students) are expected to abide by the School's Code of Research Conduct. The Code incorporates the policy and procedures for the investigation of research misconduct.
Please see the Research integrity at LSE webpage for further information.

The LSE is a subscriber to the UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO). LSE researchers can find a number of resources and details of events on the UKRIO website

Ethics review considerations: please see the LSE quick guide for researchers (students and staff) here
Research Ethics at LSE: please see a brief overview (slides) here
Using social media data and Internet data in research: please see the LSE guidance on ethics and consent here
Payments and benefits to research participants: see the LSE guidance here
Research with children and vulnerable groups: see the LSE guidance here. If working with children, you may also find it very useful to look at the resources available on the Global Kids Online website.
Safeguarding in research and international activities: see the LSE policy here.
Data Management: please see the LSE guidance available here or check out the Research Data Management Toolkit.
The Social Research Association has very helpful Research Ethics Guidance.

All students: in the first instance please contact your department to ask what discipline-specific research ethics training may be available in your department.
PhD and MRes students: termly workshops on informed consent and conducting sensitive interviews are held in the PhD Academy. See here.
MY580 research workshops on topics such as fieldwork preparation, ethics and research integrity.
Relevant research training is also available via the Bloomsbury Postgraduate Skills Network (BPSN).
Master's students: termly training sessions to help you plan for, conduct and transcribe your research interviews. Book the course 'Master's Dissertation: Conduct effective interviews' via the LSE Life events page.
Fieldwork training: LSE training and guidance available for fieldwork and travel can be found here
Global Health TrainingCentre course ‘Research ethics online training’. This free access online course is very relevant to most research in the social sciences.
Mental Health 'First Aid' training: for training available at LSE see here
External: most providers of MHFA can be found here https://mhfaengland.org
Research team leaders: this UCB presentation ‘Working With Research Study Participants: An Overview’ is designed for research team leaders to go through with their research assistants.
The Social Research Association runs a range of training courses, some of which include research ethics related issues.

Researchers planning to conduct any fieldwork overseas – either by themselves or via local research assistants/enumerators, etc., and regardless of whether or not any travel will be involved - must contact the Health and Safety team to ascertain whether a risk assessment is required.

Note that any travel for fieldwork to high-risk countries requires approval by SMC. Overseas research that is considered to be high risk or contentious may also be referred to SMC.

Please see the latest LSE information on travel here. If you have any questions relating to travel or the risk assessment process, please contact the Health and Safety team.

Drop-in surgeries: All staff and students are welcome to come along to one of our online 'Research ethics, data management, data protection and copyright' drop-in surgeries with any questions they have. Sessions are held on Thursdays from 3-4pm (on zoom). For more details and to book please click here
Links to further LSE and external frameworks and guidance are available in the Research Ethics Policy Annex A
If you require copies of any documentation in an alternative format, or other reasonable adjustments, please let us know (link below)
If you have any questions concerning research ethics not answered here please contact Lyn Grove or Myriam Fellous-Sigrist