Research Requiring Ethics Review

The following kinds of research require review and approval by an REB before the research begins:

Research involving living human subjects
Research involving human remains, cadavers, tissues, biological fluids, embryos or foetuses
Research about a living individual in the public arena if the subject is to be interviewed and/or private papers accessed
Research involving secondary use of data (use of data not collected for that research purpose) - health records, employee records, student records, computer listings, banked tissue - if any form of identifier is involved and/or if private information pertaining to individuals is involved
Quality assurance studies and program evaluations which may address a research question and/or may be presented outside the boundaries of the program which is the focus of the study/evaluation and/or may be published

Research that Does Not require ethics review

The following kinds of studies do not require ethics review. However, if the investigator is in doubt, the relevant REB office should be contacted.

Research about individuals in the public arena using only publicly available or accessible records without contact with the individual/s.
Research involving naturalistic observation in public venues.
Research resulting in a case study of one patient with the expectation that written, informed consent has been obtained from the relevant patient.
Quality assurance studies, program evaluations, performance reviews, testing within normal educational requirements if there is no research question involved and if there is no intention to present the results of the studies to persons outside the relevant program and/or to publish the results.
Research based on review of the published/publicly reported literature.
Research involving secondary use of data which is provided without any identifier or group of identifiers which would allow attribution of private information to an individual.
Consulting unless carried out under the auspices of the University.