I would like to ask one question based on my survey. I am doing a survey on working pregnant women and relevant doctors for finding out the spread of lower back pain, cervical pain, swollen foot and their suggestions in modifying the design of furniture like desk and chair. I am doing survey online without meeting the subjects personally and hence not involved in any practical experiments. DO I also require ethical approval? Kindly suggest me on the same. Thank you.
Nikhil Yadav, in a word, yes, you should obtain ethics approval. Your research does not appear to be "risky", but it's best to have it approved by some kind of ethics committee. Some ethics committees are able to consider approval of research that is not conducted by people from the organisations to which they belong, so you could send an application to them if you don't have "automatic" access to an ethics committee.
One thing to consider is that many journals require evidence of ethics approval, either explicitly stated in articles they publish or at the time of submission. It is best to be able to be totally honest about that.
Thanks a lot for your valuable suggestion sir. I will definitely proceed on the same.
Nikhil Yadav, not at all. I might have added that some ethics committees have "fast-track" applications for situations that present little prospect of ethics problems occurring.
If you are going through a University yes, if you are an independent researcher, yes.
Yes, very much. Any survey involving human participants should be duly approved by ethics cell of your institution/organization as per ICMR Guidelines 2018:
https://ethics.ncdirindia.org/ICMR_Ethical_Guidelines.aspx
In the U.S. it sounds like your study might meet the criteria for exempt status. That means that you still must submit to the ethics board, but you can request exempt status review. If a study is judged to be exempt, it is the same as approval, but there may be no requirement for continuing review. And exempt protocols may be processed through a "fact-track" review, as mentioned by Dr. Trevethan. I am not familiar with processes outside the U.S., but you might check on whether exempt status is available and relevant to your study where you are. Good luck with your research.
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