Do we need ethics committee approval for survey (questionnaires about health and well-being) involving human participants ? Looking for your kind response. Thanks
Hello Vinay,
This is an absolute essential in my institution as the survey would be completed by humans and there are potential ethical issues involved. Am interested to see how this goes.
Hello Vinay,
Indeed, in my institution and the institutions I worked reseach ethics committee's approval is obligatory for all surveys including human persons. The institutions cooperating expect us to have the approval and it is necessary for publication. Therefore I would recommend to you to obtain approval by a research ethics committee.
Kind regards,
Nils
Thanks for your response @John and Nils. In this case, do we need to take informed consent from the participants?
You should note the difference between explicit and implicit/implied consent. Although this can vary between countries in legal terms - there is a convention that, depending on how you 'deliver' the survey/questionnaire, it is implicit consent if people choose to complete the survey, and, of course, if they do not they they have not consented. Often online questionnaires rely on implicit consent, considered adequate in most countries, and with a face-to face survey it is conventional to seek explicit consent. How 'informed' either is depends on what information you provide - in both cases you must be clear about how their data will be handled. So - simple answer - yes, you do need consent but there are different ways of gaining it.
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