Honours Thesis Research

Honours thesis research that does not fall into one of the supervisors previously approved projects and involves human participants must be reviewed first at the departmental level, followed by the University Office of Research Services (ORS) as per the Tri Council Policy Statement (TCPS) Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans and the University Policy on the Ethical Conduct of Research Involving Humans.

Note:
1. If a student project involves more than minimal risk (see Chapter 1, Section B of the 2nd edition of Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS-2) the student must obtain approval through Dalhousie University (or affiliated) Research Ethics Board (REB).

2. When the student project does fall under the supervisor's protocol, and thus does not require departmental review, an email should be sent to Psych.Ethics@dal.ca with a PDF of the original REB approval. If SONA access is required, a SONA application must also be submitted.

Step 1: Submit Your Application to the Department

An undergraduate student research ethics review process has been developed and is available on the Office of Research Services website. This link includes a template consent form to assist student researchers in developing this important document. The submission form is supplemented by Submission Instructions for Undergraduate Students' Thesis Research.

The application forms are available here: Undergraduate Student Application.

For honours project review, an electronic copy of the complete submission package (submission form and appendices) must be submitted as a single electronic file in PDF format, named: "REB Submission (Student last name)" emailed to psych.ethics@dal.ca.

Student researchers must complete the online research ethics (TCPS) tutorial, Course on Research Ethics (CORE).

Step 2: Submit Your Departmentally-Approved Application to the REB

The department research ethics committee reviews the application and communicates with the applicant/supervisor regarding required revisions (as applicable).

Undergraduate honours thesis minimal risk research that has received review and approval from the department level research ethics committee will undergo a streamlined delegated review at the Office of Research Services Board level.
 
Undergraduate honours thesis research that has not received review and approval from a department level research ethics committee, and all non-minimal risk research, must be submitted directly to the Office of Research Services office and will undergo the standard review process.

The department research ethics chair recommends the revised application for approval to the University REB (through the Office of Research Services, by signing the student's REB submission form). The student submits the most recent version of the application to Office of Research Services.