Hi, my name is James Arvanitakis. I'm the Dean of the Graduate Research School
here at Western Sydney University. Welcome to our ethical research videos.
In this second video, we talk about ethics to a group of researchers who
advise you on the processes that they follow and some tips that they can give
you. Ethics approval or the ethics process isn't just about ticking the box.
It's really about thinking about how research is used in a way that can
actually improve, whether it be health or science or any type of outcomes, and in
the process of, you know doing an ethics application, you actually start to
think about how it is that we talk about certain things, how we engage with
certain ideas and I think it actually develops a researcher as a kind of agent
for whether it be social change or advancement or innovation and ethics
then becomes a vehicle in that sense and that application process which really
asks you a lot of questions where you start to be able to think about how do I
understand these ideas, how do I want to get them across and that carries on in
your research itself as well as in your writing and in other aspects where you
begin to develop outside of this tick box process, but this is a catalyst for
it. So when you first think about ethics there's a few things you should have in place.
So one is some background in the area. They don't, the ethics committees don't
want you researching something that's been researched a thousand times before.
So you need to know that you're doing something unique and novel. You should
probably put forward a protocol which is the journey and participant would go on.
So you would approach them in what way you're going to ask them ask them
questions, either over the phone, face-to-face, in an online survey, so
really put forward the journey and then once you've got that data, what's the
journey that data will go on. So if you can map out the process that you expect
it to take, then you you're a long way towards understanding how you can then
go and answer the questions in an ethics application. So my advice to any student
approaching an ethics approval process is
work closely with your supervisors. Don't do this on your own. Don't think you know it.
Don't go off and submit it without it being reviewed and having assistance. The
other thing that I do with my students is I get them to look at other ethics
submissions. So I give them copies of other ethics submissions, I give them
copies of fliers and demographics and consent and information sheets and that
helps them enormously in being able to put together the ethics approval, but I
would never ever expect my students to do it without help. Talk to other
students about things that they've learnt, never be frightened to ring up
the ethics office. They're fantastic and they help with all sorts
of things. The other thing is when we submit an ethics application often
they'll review it and they'll pick up where we may have missed out on things,
they'll send it back and we can quickly fix that so we don't have the delay on
the other end. So it's a really important part of being a student but you don't
have to do this on your own. What, what do you want your final product to look like?
What do you want your thesis to look like? And where are you going to
gather that data from, and it might be lots of places. It might be the
literature, it might be experts in the field, it might be fellow students, it
might be the community, you might go and just observe people without actually
interacting with them. All those bits of information if you write them up for
your thesis, you really do have to think about at what point may I have
changed or interviewed a situation that I've gathered data whether it be
observations, conversations, numbers, facts and figures. At what point have you
intervened that you have been a presence there that you wouldn't normally have
been in, in order to get that data and if you are placing yourself in a position
to get data, then you probably need to be getting ethics to do that. So the
important piece for all students to remember and all researchers in
general to remember is that ethics approval processes, ethics clearance,
whatever you want to call it, is actually a positive step, that is actually
something that allows you to reflect upon what you're
doing and how you're engaging in your project. This is helpful. It should be
viewed as constructive and on the other side of the coin it should be
treated as an opportunity for learning. So ethics, those who are engaged in
providing ethical clearance also needed to treat it in that positive sort of way.
If we create a context where ethics is a burden, where it's a sort of step that
you have to go through and nobody really wants to take into account, then I think
it's, it's, we're not sort of taking full advantage of ethical considerations. We
need to treat it as a positive step in research and treat it as an opportunity
to learn how to enhance our research so as not to affect others in a negative
way. So I would ask a supervisor in the first instance if that's your first
protocol for your research, I would ask the supervisor what type of methods they
have used and how has that gone down with ethics, how they have prepared their
ethics applications, if you can get some examples of what ethics applications
look like, if you can get some information, things to read about, videos
to watch about how to prepare ethics, the things to think about, these type of
videos, these type of resources, to really start to manage potential dilemmas, to
plan out your time. Ok so I think when undertaking or considering to undertake
a process for ethics, there's a number of steps and some of them are quite boring
or quite sort of obvious. One for example is to give yourself plenty of time and
actually give yourself time to reflect and think about what process you want to
follow. The second thing is is don't think of ethics as a form but as an
approach, think about it as a philosophy, so when you're, when you're, when you're
approaching a subject that you want to research think about what is the most
ethical or the the way that you're, you're going to engage with your, with
the people you want to interview and I think that's key. Once you get that sorted,
once you get that philosophy sorted, then actually going through the form process
is quite simple and I suppose the third thing is and this is across any time
that you're thinking about approaching ethics is to work really closely with
your supervisor. Be very, very clear so they can understand what you want to do
and what they expect from you. Your supervisors there to guide you and so
the last thing you want to do is kind of just do a whole bunch of things
then go to them. You're better off approaching them and discussing with
them really early, sorting out what you need to do and then implementing, but
again I think key here is the philosophy of the approach that you take
rather than thinking about this just as a form. You can seek advice from your,
your supervisors, fellow students, more senior students in the laboratory,
ringing the Ethics Committee and asking if you can have a meeting and talk about
your project and what type of ethics they think that you might have and
there's online resources as well that you can read, so if it's STEM type
research the National Health Medical Research Council has guidelines
on ethical approval, the University has guidelines on what might be considered
low or negligible risk which you still require ethics for, so there's lots of
resources out there. You shouldn't go into the process without being informed
about what is required and what you should do next. Obviously speaking to the
Ethics Committee so that you can get a sense of what is acceptable and what
isn't, as well as the times when they will be meeting and get an understanding
of whether your research falls into low risk or and what level of low risk and
when you might have your ethics application reviewed. That way you can
work backwards to think okay this is when I might want to put it in, I need to
get these steps in place before that. You have to outline potential harm to
participants. Now that can be as simple as asking them a question that might
make them feel uncomfortable and you therefore need to have on hand
people who could deal with any distress that is caused by those questions, all
the way through to some medical intervention. So whether it's taking
blood collection, taking photographs of the retinas of the eyes, getting them to
spit in a tube to collect DNA, all these things are things that I've done in my
research and in each one of those you need to actually yes acknowledge that it
may have some discomfort and potential harm and if that arises what do you do
with that and how do you handle and what support do you
provide those participants to make sure that that harm is minimised. Some advice
that I would probably give is that you know obviously start early and have
everything prepared but I think sometimes students might perceive it to
be a really scary process and that it's you know a big application and this, they
might fear that their application will be rejected. It doesn't work like that.
The ethics committee, your supervisors, everyone's working with you in order to
get the project approved so that you can carry on with your research and develop
as a researcher, so there shouldn't be this fear that you know it's all going
to fall apart because I've never had a situation where we weren't able to
change something or amend something or do something a bit differently in order
to make sure that our research continues. So don't be afraid, it's not a scary
process. Think about how your research is impacting others so not just what you're
going to get from the research but actually the effect that your research
will have, treat it as a positive and treat it as a context where you can learn
how to be a better researcher. Don't think about this as a terrible boring
hurdle that you have to get over. Think about this as actually the heart of what
research is about. Think about this is making you a better person. Think about
this as protecting you and protecting those that you research. So don't think
about this as just something that you have to do. This is a core part of
learning to be a researcher. Don't do it on your own, get help from your
supervisors, talk to your other colleagues, talk to the research office, don't feel
that this is a journey that you have to undertake on your own, and thirdly doing
research is one of the most rewarding, inspiring and wonderful parts of your
life so try and have fun, try and enjoy it. Whenever you have a barrier that you
come up against which is really common as a student and really common as a
researcher, try not to think of it as something that devastates you or takes
away your hope, break through it, think of it as a challenge, think about it as
something that's going to improve you, make you better and stronger in the
future, teach you skills. So you know, embrace it, don't fight it and don't get
despondent.