Do I need to submit an application?

Ethics approval is required for most human research.  If your project involves human research and requires ethics approval, you must apply for that approval and must not begin your research activity until you have received final approval.

Human Research is conducted with or about people, their data, and/or their tissue.  The term ‘participants’’ is used very broadly to include those who may not even know they are the subjects of research.  If you are planning to conduct human research, you will require ethics approval unless your project is subject to the exemptions listed in the following section.  Some examples of activities that count as human research:

Surveys

Interviews

Focus Groups

Observations

Testing

Access to:

Personal information

Documents

Data sets

Social Media

 

 

Collection and use of

Bodily organs

Cell lines

Tissues

Fluids

Exhaled breath

What doesn't need approval?

The following activities do not require human research ethics approval:

If you are unsure about any of these, please contact the Human Research Ethics office for advice.

Other things to consider with your application

Will you be working with children? Accessing information from organisations? Undertaking clinical research? Recruiting UniSA Staff/Students?  These questions and more are answered here.