Ethical issues pertaining to human subjects
Report approval for the study from an appropriate institutional review board for research associated with human subjects.
If you did not receive ethical approval, describe why.
Describe procedures used to protect participants, including:
data collection (e.g., recruitment and informed consent)
analysis (e.g., data security and integrity)
and reporting of findings (e.g., anonymization of excerpts).
If you provided compensation or offered incentives to facilitate participation, describe this too.
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Why readers need this information
Journals will require an ethical approval statement.
Qualitative research often involves interaction between researchers and research participants. Correspondingly, researchers should ensure that participants are fully aware of their participation in a research study, the risks and benefits associated with the study, the steps and precautions the researchers will take to minimize risks, such as loss of privacy and confidentiality, and how the researchers plan to use the data.
Examples
Ethical approval was granted by the University of Otago and student participants were invited to attend each focus group discussion by the university representatives of New Zealand Medical Students Association (NZMSA). Usually, a key concern when collecting data from students is that students may feel vulnerable when sharing their experiences with academic staff during a focus group discussion. However, this potential harm was removed as each group discussion was facilitated by a fellow student, the discussions were transcribed by a professional transcribing service, and only the primary researchers [Names] had access to the raw data.
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