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Research ethics board

NIC’s Research Ethics Board (REB) ensures research activity involving human subjects is conducted in a manner that respects participants’ rights, welfare and safety. The REB assesses the acceptability of research through the consideration of foreseeable risks, potential benefits and ethical implications of the research. 

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Research FAQs 

If you are conducting research with human participants and/or human biological material, you will most likely require approval from the REB. 

Ethics approval is not required under the following conditions: 
  • The research relies exclusively on publicly available information, where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. 
  • Data is gathered as part of normal learning requirements (eg. where students collect information as part of their training) and the data is not shared beyond the normal learning environment. This exception does not apply where deception is used; any research activities involving deception must be reviewed and approved by the REB. 
  • The research involves the observation of people in public places that meets all of the following three conditions:  
  1. The researcher does not interact with individual(s)/groups 
  2. individuals or groups under observation have no reasonable expectation of privacy 
  3. the written or oral reporting of results from the research does not identify anyone 
  • Examples include studying crowd behaviour at a sporting event or the way people place themselves in an elevator. 
  • The research relies exclusively on secondary use of anonymized information, so long as the process of data linkage or recording or dissemination of results does not generate identifiable information. An example here might be original research on an anonymized data set purchased from Statistics Canada. 
  • Creative practice activities, unless the creative practice is used to obtain responses from participants as part of a study. 
  • If you are unclear on your ethics approval requirements, contact the REB Chair.

Research projects are distinguished by risk to participants. Minimal risk research is where the stress or harm faced by a participant during a study is fairly similar to the stress or harm they experience in their everyday life. Examples include professionals talking about how they do their jobs, students describing why they chose their programs or consumers explaining why they shop at some stores and not at others. 

Research is deemed above minimal risk if it uses deception or involves sensitive issues or stress-causing questions. It may also mean that researchers cannot guarantee anonymity to subjects or that the research relates to the study of an historically marginalized or disadvantaged group. 

Applying for approval

All research undertaken at or with support from NIC that also involves human subjects requires ethical review and approval before data collection begins. To request an application form, contact the REB.

Student, faculty and staff researchers 

If students are engaged in similar or identical instructor-designed, course-based, minimal-risk research, instructors may seek ethics approval using the PPM 1-12 B form.

For course-based projects with varying approaches or elements of minimal risk, students may apply for approval using the PPM 1-12 B Student form. 
Student, faculty and staff can find more information on the research ethics resource page on myNIC. 

External research or projects outside of coursework 

Research that is not related to an NIC course or that is being conducted externally from NIC may request REB approval using the standard PPM 1-12C form. This form should also be used for research that definitely or likely exceeds the minimal level of risk to participants.