Research Ethics and Academic Integrity

The Laws Faculty has a Laws Local Research Ethics Committee听(Laws LREC).听 This LREC has delegated authority to review and approve any low risk research ethics application from a Laws academic or student. It is also available to any Laws researcher, teacher or student who has any question at all about research ethics, who may be unsure whether their research needs formal ethical review or who would like any assistance in the process of ethical review.听 LREC听reviews faculty research projects (including external grant proposals), student research projects and 1st year PhD students鈥� ethical statements on their research.

For guidance and advice on any issue involving research ethics you should, in the first instance, contact the Laws Research Office at:听laws.research@ucl.ac.uk.听The Laws Research Office will then ensure that LREC helps you with your query, and will support you in identifying whether any further information or documentation may be required.

If you want to conduct research involving any of the following, you need to contact the Laws Research Office in the first instance. Formal approval from LREC听may be required before you proceed and if you do not obtain ethical approval for your research before you start this can be consider research misconduct:

Interviews 鈥� formal and informal
Questionnaires / surveys
Creating or accessing data sets
Observing proceedings
Accessing case files or transcripts which are usually confidential
Experimental research.

Certain 鈥榟igh risk鈥� categories of research, such as e.g. working with children or other vulnerable groups or handling sensitive data, or research involving travel which may expose the researcher to personal risk, will need approval by the central 新香港六合彩开奖结果Research Ethics Committee (REC). This is a formal process, which may subject your research to delay. The process for 新香港六合彩开奖结果REC review is laid out step-by-step on the听新香港六合彩开奖结果REC Procedures for Applications page.听However, before submitting an application to the 新香港六合彩开奖结果REC, you are advised to first seek guidance from the Laws LREC听by contacting the Laws Research Office at:听laws.research@ucl.ac.uk. Researchers planning to commence 鈥榟igh risk鈥� research should contact LREC听as soon as possible as LREC guidance can help insure there aren鈥檛 long delays in ethical approval.

Even if your research is not 鈥榟igh risk鈥�, or requiring formal clearance from LREC, it must still be conducted in accordance with听听as well as the recognised听professional codes of conduct听suitable for your research specialism.听 Laws LREC can provide advice and guidance on any of these issues.

Members of the Laws Local听Research Ethics Team are listed听in the Academic Officers & Enabling Roles section on the听Laws intranet - Human Resources.

Data Protection

Even if your research does not require formal ethical approval, this does not mean that the research is also automatically exempt from registration with the 新香港六合彩开奖结果Data Protection Officer or from 新香港六合彩开奖结果Risk Assessment procedures.听 Any research activities which involve the processing of 鈥減ersonal data鈥� (ie, data from which a living individual can be identified) will be subject to the UK Data Protection Laws, which is regulated by the Information Commissioner鈥檚 Office (ICO). 听 All research using 鈥減ersonal data鈥� must be registered with 新香港六合彩开奖结果Legal Services before the data is collected or the research is submitted for ethics review. 听To check if your research involves 鈥減ersonal data鈥�, please see the听Data Protection Guidance for Researchers听provided by 新香港六合彩开奖结果Legal Services.
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新香港六合彩开奖结果Safety Services provide information on听risk assessment.
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Please contact the听Laws Research Office听to check whether your research needs a formal Risk Assessment.

Academic Integrity: Should you ever have concerns about Academic Integrity of any kind, you can find guidance in the 新香港六合彩开奖结果Statement on Research Integrity.
and you are strongly encouraged to raise any such matters with the Laws Faculty contacts on these matters: the Dean and the Deputy Dean/Vice Dean Staffing.

Research Transparency, including 新香港六合彩开奖结果Statement on Transparency in Research: For further information听and to download UCL's Statement on Transparency on Research visit听the 新香港六合彩开奖结果Research Transparency website.

Advice for researchers planning overseas fieldwork: UCL鈥檚 simplified policy and guidance site makes planning overseas research and fieldwork easier and helps researchers ensure they're policy-compliant. In order to help 新香港六合彩开奖结果researchers comply with all the different requirements, UCL鈥檚 Research Integrity Team has created a roadmap that sets out the processes involved in planning and conducting international research; bringing them together in a single, easy to follow resource with our Overseas Research Roadmap.

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