Do I need ethics clearance?

Research where ethics clearance is required

If you are undertaking any research that directly involves human participants or animals, or uses data derived from humans or animals, then you need to apply for ethics clearance.

Some examples include:

• You are conducting a user experience survey with regard to a mobile phone application. Ethics clearance is required here because the study involves human participants.
• You have built a head-mouse prototype and will only be testing it on yourself. Ethics clearance is required here, and in all cases, in which the researchers are the only participants in the study.
• You are analysing a dataset of anonymized voice samples, freely available on the internet (secondary data), in order to detect emotions. Here, ethics clearance is required because you are dealing with data derived from humans. However, there is no risk of harm to the participants, so you should apply for an ethics waiver.
• You are conducting a study involving the use of data obtained from social media websites. In all such cases, ethics clearance is required. Depending on the nature of the study, a waiver may be applied for.
• You are measuring the acceleration, braking, and fuel consumption patterns of the Wits bus fleet. In doing this you are essentially tracking driver behaviour, so you need to apply for ethics clearance as well as obtain a permission letter from the university registrar. If there is no risk of harm to the research participants then a waiver can be applied for.

If you do need ethics clearance, you now need to figure out which committee to apply to.

Research where ethics clearance is not required

If your research does not involve human or animal subjects/data, you do not need to apply for ethics clearance and you do not need an ethics waiver.

Suppose, for example, that you are testing the breakdown strength of different insulating materials in the high voltage laboratory. Although this has health and safety considerations (which you should discuss and address together with your supervisor) you do not need to apply for ethics clearance.