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.