Georgian College Research Ethics Board

Yes. Before you get too far into developing your research protocol, you will want to ensure that any resources you are counting on will actually be available to you. If you were to skip this step, you could find that the access or timing you had planned on is unavailable, and you may need to revise your protocol and restart the approval process. Also, because Georgian College receives many requests to involve our students and employees in research, it is important that your planned research does not conflict with other research already occurring at the college, and that there is capacity to add another study. Coordination of research timing can help to boost participation, especially when topics are similar.

Refer to the forms section of this webpage for to access the Request for Permission for Access to Resources for Research (RPARR) form. This form contains a list of the methods often used to recruit research participants at Georgian.

If you’ve had any preliminary discussions regarding access to resources, share this information with the manager who will sign RPARR Section D.

If you don’t know which manager should receive your RPARR, consult the Organizational Charts on the employee portal or contact the Research Ethics Board assistant for guidance. If you are requesting access to both human and non-human resources, submit your RPARR to the manager responsible for access to the most important resource – your research participants – and anyone whose help is essential to your project. Sometimes the topic will dictate who should receive the RPARR. If the resources fall under more than one manager, submit your RPARR to the manager above them. Below are some examples.

• Example 1 – Topic: Academic, e.g. teaching and learning
  • If you want to recruit students or employees only from certain academic programs, submit your RPARR to their associate dean.
  • If the programs you wish to target fall under more than one associate dean, submit your RPARR to their dean.
  • If you wish to recruit participants from programs involving more than one dean or from all academic areas, submit your RPARR to the vice president of academic.
• Example 2 – Topic: Student Success
  • If you only want to do research regarding students who use particular service like accessibility or library services, submit your RPARR to the appropriate director of that service.
  • If your research is about more than one student service, or if you want to invite all students to participate in a study about student services, submit your RPARR to the executive director of student and learning services.
• Example 3 – Topic: Employment
  • If you want to recruit employees from a particular department, submit your RPARR to the manager of that department.
  • If you want to invite academic employees from all program areas to participate, submit your RPARR to the vice president of academic.
  • If you want to invite employees across the college to participate, submit your RPARR to the vice president of human resources.

International consensus requires that a duly constituted and functioning independent committee review and approve all research projects involving human subjects before the first potential research subject is invited to participate. Independent review reinforces the ethical standards that the researcher and institution strive to meet.

Georgian College of Applied Arts and Technology is eligible to receive funding from two of Canada’s three federal research agencies – the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). To retain funding eligibility, all research that occurs at or under the auspices of Georgian College must comply with Tri-agencies’ policies, including the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans – TCPS 2 (2018).

Researchers planning to conduct research involving Georgian employees, students or community members as participants, or research involving humans under the auspices of Georgian or using Georgian resources, must obtain approval from GCREB. The range of research activities requiring review by GCREB includes research that involves living human participants, human biological materials, or human embryos, fetuses, fetal tissue, reproductive materials and stem cells. Please refer to Georgian’s policies on responsible practice and ethics review in research for details.

Some research activities, and research-like activities, are exempt from ethics review. Please refer to Chapter 2 of the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans – TCPS 2 (2022) for more information.

Still not sure whether your project requires ethics review?

Try the ARECCI Ethics Screening Tool. This is primarily a development/educational tool. It could assist researchers to know if their study requires Research Ethics Board approval. It is sometimes difficult to see the risks involved in your own study. If you find while completing the ARECCI Ethics Screening Tool that the ideas in the questions are unfamiliar or if you feel any hesitation, it is highly recommended that you complete Tri-Council Policy Statement 2 Course on Research Ethics tutorial (TCPS 2 CORE) before returning to the ARECCI Ethics Screening Tool.

Check out these guidelines for differentiating among research, program evaluation and quality improvement from University of Alberta’s Research Ethics Office. This document contains questions in a table format to distinguish research from quality assurance, program evaluation and quality improvement projects.

Researchers should contact the GCREB chair for guidance before deciding not to submit their study. Researchers are advised to save a copy of their ARECCI Ethics Screening Tool results and approved RPARR for discussion with the chair. The chair may also require information such as research questions and data collection tools (e.g. surveys, interview guides) to determine any eligibility for an exemption from ethics review.

Research involving humans being conducted at or under the auspices of Georgian College must have GCREB approval before any recruitment or data collection may begin.

Please see the forms section of this page to download the most recent version of the forms.

If potential subjects can reasonably be expected to regard the probability and magnitude of possible harms implied by participation in the research to be no greater than those encountered by the subject in those aspects of his or her everyday life that relate to the research, then the research can be regarded as within the range of minimal risk.

Minimal risk research:

• draws participants from the general adult population, who are capable of giving free and informed consent, and may not include vulnerable subjects such as children and persons who are who not legally competent to consent;
• does not involve any personal, sensitive or incriminating topics or questions which could place participants at risk;
• does not manipulate behaviour of participants beyond the range of “normal” classroom activity or daily life;
• does not involve physically invasive contact with the research participants;
• does not involve deception;
• does not involve undue or excessive offers of benefit (e.g. an offer of payment in relation to research participation that would exceed the normal range of benefits open to the research participant); and
• may be eligible for delegated ethics review.

Please see: Course-based research ethics review – information for faculty.

1. Complete the required tutorials.
2. Complete a Request for Permission for Access to Resources for Research (RPARR) and check with any non-Georgian research sites regarding their required approvals.
3. Seek out scholarly/peer review of your GCREB Application for Research Ethics Approval or Ontario Community College Multi-site REB Application from someone who has done similar research.
4. Submit your completed GCREB Application for Research Ethics Approval or Ontario Community College Multi-site REB Application to GCREB (or to your instructor if applicable).
5. Submit additional application components, forms and reports as required by GCREB (or by your instructor if applicable).
6. Once you have ethics approval, conduct your research.
7. When your research is complete or before ethics approval expires (whichever occurs first), submit a GCREB Final Report or GCREB Renewal Request form to GCREB, or to your instructor, if applicable.

• Your university may require proof that your research will be welcome at Georgian College, and you will want to confirm you have access to the Georgian College resources you will need to conduct your research, so obtain permission for access to resources using the Request for Permission for Access to Resources for Research (RPARR) before applying for ethics approval.
• When you are ready to obtain ethics approval, apply first to the research ethics board at the institution where you are studying.
• Once you have ethics approval at your home institution, apply to the GCREB. Please submit the GCREB Application for Research Ethics Approval or Ontario Community College Multi-site REB Application. Attach your original application along with the signed letter of approval from the other research ethics board. Be sure to include the documents you plan to use at Georgian College.

If the other research ethics board is at an institution eligible to administer grant or award funds from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), or the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), your project may qualify for a delegated approval process.

Please submit the GCREB Application for Research Ethics Approval or Ontario Community College Multi-site REB Application. Attach your original application along with the signed letter of approval from the other research ethics board. Be sure to include the documents you plan to use at Georgian College.

Chapter 3 of the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans – TCPS 2 (2018) sets out the ethical requirements for obtaining research participants’ “free, informed and ongoing consent”. For the most common data collection methods (e.g. questionnaires, interviews and focus groups), an informed consent form is used to obtain and document consent.

Refer to the GCREB Review Checklist for a list of requirements.

You may find the Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Research Ethics Board Requirements for Informed Consent Documents helpful. You can also find examples of informed consent documents and forms on the University of Waterloo website. Lakehead University’s Template: Letter of Information and Consent Form is available on the Lakehead University website. Ontario Tech University’s template can be found on their ethics resources site.

Remember to remove anything that does not pertain to your project, include the contact information for the research ethics board(s) that will review your study (e.g. GCREB), and to use appropriate letterhead. Only use Georgian College letterhead or branding if you are conducting the research on behalf of Georgian College.

If your research will undergo review by GCREB, you must include the following statement as part of the contact information provided to participants during the informed consent process (preferred) and/or recruitment materials (as appropriate):

• “If you have questions about your rights as a research participant, you may contact GCREB at reb@georgiancollege.ca or 705.722.5123”

Here are some sample demographic questions and categories.

Here are some items to consider before submitting your application:

• Have I addressed all questions in the application?
• Have I included evidence (including references) to back up my rationale and to support my choice of research questions, methodology and tools?
• Have I thoroughly explained my methodology, step by step, including processes that will be used to ensure confidentiality?
• Have I thoroughly explained the experience from the participants’ point of view, including the time commitment, risks and benefits, recruitment process, data collection, debriefing, sharing of results and any incentives that will be offered?
• Have I addressed confidentiality and secure transmission, storage, retention and disposal of data in my research proposal?
• Have I included a copy of all recruiting, interview and debriefing scripts, consent forms, surveys and other supporting documents?
• Have I included proof of completion of the TCPS online tutorial for all investigators?
• Have I signed the application form and initialed where required? Have all investigators signed the Investigator Assurance?
• Have I included the contact information for GCREB on the recruitment materials and/or informed consent documents that I am submitting for ethics approval?

Student researchers:

• If your research is for a course in which the instructor has authority to conduct course-based research ethics review, submit the application and all forms for your project to your instructor.
• Your instructor will sign as the principal investigator.
• If your instructor does not have authority to conduct course-based research ethics review in your course, or if the research is not part of your course work, submit your application and forms directly to GCREB.
• If you are not sure whether your instructor has authority to conduct course-based research ethics review in your course, contact GCREB.

All other researchers:

• Please submit an electronic copy of your application to GCREB via email: reb@georgiancollege.ca.

Submit your complete application at least fourteen working days prior to the next GCREB meeting.

GCREB will often request that a researcher make changes and resubmit their application for reconsideration, so a lead time of at least two months is recommended.

GCREB has regularly scheduled monthly meetings.

Please see the meeting schedule or contact GCREB at 705.418.3359.

No. Applications for research ethics approval are confidential and cannot be shared outside GCREB without the investigator’s permission.

Since approvals comprise most of the business that is conducted at GCREB meetings, they are closed to the public. However, GCREB may invite researchers to provide clarification before conducting their deliberations.

You can expect a response regarding your ethics review in about two to four weeks, depending on the level of review required. When GCREB responds, you may be asked to resubmit your application with changes for additional review, so plan for GCREB approval to take three to eight weeks.

The best way to ensure a quick turnaround is to ensure your application is complete, contains sufficient information to demonstrate compliance with the TCPS 2 (2018) and is submitted at least twelve working days prior to the next GCREB meeting. Applications will not be accepted as complete, and ethics review will not commence, unless accompanied by an approved Request for Permission for Access to Resources for Research (RPARR) and/or documentation of similar administrative approval if the research will use resources of another institution.

You may be asked to address some questions or shortfalls in your application and resubmit it to GCREB for reconsideration.

You also have the right to appeal the decision of GCREB to our Research Ethics Appeal Board (REAB), the Niagara College Research Ethics Board. Such appeals may only be initiated by the research applicant. The research applicant will submit all required materials (the original proposal, the letter of rejection from GCREB and a letter requesting the review) in writing to the chair of the REAB within the allotted time of ten working days. The research applicant requesting the appeal must follow the procedures outlined in Georgian’s procedures on Responsible Practice and Ethics Review in Research and Niagara College’s practice on Research Involving Human Subjects. The decision of the REAB is final.

Please submit a GCREB Change Request if you wish to make any changes to your approved protocol.

For studies with approval at multiple Ontario colleges, you may want to use the multi-college change request form.

Yes. On or before the date your ethics approval expires, please submit a GCREB Final Report and a copy of your final research report to GCREB.

If you decide not to complete your research, submit a GCREB Final Report to GCREB to close the file.

If your research project will go on longer than one year, you must submit a GCREB Renewal Request at least two weeks before the date your ethics approval expires.

For multi-college forms please visit the Multi-College Research Ethics Board website.

Please address any questions to Avinash Thadani, PhD, Chair, Georgian College Research Ethics Board at 249.388.1291.

You may also contact the REB office at reb@georgiancollege.ca or 705.722.5123.