How to navigate the ethical review of research

Abstract

Submitting your project for ethical review and the comments or even criticisms that may follow can be irritating or even painful. There are many stories that recite and relive the difficulties some have experienced, but we do\xa0not believe it need be so. There may be some eye-rolling at this, but we ask you to delay judgement until you\xa0have read the article, a description of how reviewers tend to approach the process and, from this, we propose a practical approach for researchers.\n\n1. Do I need to submit my project for review?\n\n2. What are reviewers trying to do?\n\n3. What are the reviewers’ likely concerns and questions in this area?\n\n4. How can I make my project easier to review?\n\n5. How can I analyse contentious or ‘tricky’ issues?\n\n6. What should I do when/if I attend review?\n\n7. What shouldn’t I do?\n\n8. A checklist.\n\n9. Lessons from survivors.\n\n10. Encouragement.\n\n### 1.\xa0Do I need to submit my proposal for review?\n\nGenerally if your work is ‘research’, you\xa0will need to submit your project. Audit, service evaluation or quality improvement do not require this. Usually it\xa0is easy to distinguish these (if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it IS a duck). But sometimes judgement is needed. In the UK, the Health Research Authority (HRA) provides a leaflet ‘Defining research’, which tries to differentiate audit, research, service evaluation and public health disease management (http://www.hra-decisiontools.org.uk/research/docs/DefiningResearchTable_Oct2017-1.pdf). \n\nIf in doubt, it\xa0is worth talking to others and your relevant authorities may provide a helpline. Key discriminants for clinical research are: (1) it may change treatment or intervention according to a protocol not by choices made by a healthcare professional, child or young person (CYP) and parent, (2) allocation to treatment may be randomised and (3) patient and/or healthcare professionals may be ‘blinded’ to a treatment. In other types of work, there is: (1) no change in treatment, …