When Do I Use Each REB Form?

Before I describe the use of each REB form, it’s important to explain where to find them. Each form (and template) that I will refer to is available on ICE: Teams – Academic – Research Services, Innovation and Entrepreneurship – Research Ethics Board, then click on “Related Forms” on the left hand side (or just click here). The forms are listed alphabetically, which isn’t always intuitive.

For the “standard” REB process, the form is titled “Research Involving Humans Application” and that’s the one you will most likely be using for your research project, whether you expect to be undergoing a delegated review or a full board review. The other forms that I will describe below are used for unique situations and are designed to save you time by either shortening the form or requiring you to fill out fewer forms (keep reading for details). As part of your “normal” REB application, there is also the “Internal Researcher Institutional Permission” form which Stephanie (and sometimes also Elaine) will need to sign to grant you permission to proceed with the project (this is done prior to REB review/approval). And finally, then there is a “Study Completion” form which you will need to submit at the end of your project in order to close your file with the REB.

If your research involves multiple colleges or universities (e.g., you’re collaborating with a faculty member from another school or you’re collecting data from multiple institutions of higher education) you would use either the “Ontario Community College Multi-Site Application” (if the other institution(s) is/are all Ontario colleges) or the “Multi-Jurisdictional Research” (if the other institution(s) include(s) Canadian universities or Canadian colleges outside of Ontario). Prior to these forms, researchers had to complete each institution’s unique REB application form, but these forms allow researchers to complete one form and submit that same form to the multiple institutions’ REBs. You would use the same “Internal Researcher Institutional Permission” and “Study Completion” forms as with the standard application process.

The “Secondary Use of Data” form is used when your research project involves data that are either publicly available (e.g., archives, Statistics Canada or other public database, etc.) or data that have been previously collected for a different purpose (e.g., a previous semester’s student performance that you realize now could answer a research question you have; or a previous research project (or projects) that you’d like to combine and/or re-analyse in a different way). In these cases, you may not need to obtain informed consent from participants (though you may need to- stay tuned as this will be the topic of next edition!) Because the data have already been collected, there is inherently less risk to participants and so this form is quite a bit shorter than the standard REB form. Although you still need the include the institutional permission form, there is no study completion form required.

One final type of application is the “Course-Based Research Request for Ethical Approval A” (aka Form A) for course-based research. This is typically done in May the year before the course-based research would be started. In addition to this form, students will need to complete the “Course-Based Research Student Application to Involved Human Participants B” (aka form B) during the semester in which they are completing the project. There is also a completion form (“Course-Based Study Completion Form”) for course-based research. The details are outlined in the research ethics policy (section 5.12).

Regardless of the type of application and forms you will be using, if you need to change or extend your study approval beyond the 1-year approval, you’ll use the “Change renew Request” form. Lastly, if you experience any unanticipated issues during your study, you must let the REB know immediately with the “Unanticipated Issues Reporting” form. The REB has also produced a number of templates (available under the “Resources” section; just scroll down to the “Templates” section). These templates were created to help you submit appropriate documents and include consent forms, an email to recruit participants, a confidentiality waiver for focus groups, and a transcriber confidentially agreement.

 As always, if there is anything I can do to support your research or if you have suggestions for me in my role as Research Coordinator, please reach out via email or pop in to my “office hours” on Fridays from 12:30-1:30pm on Whereby.