Ethics and SONA resources

SONA resources

For more information about using SONA to recruit participants, refer to the UNSW Sona Researchers Guide.

Ethics resources

When submitting an ethics application at UNSW, you must determine if your project involves ‘negligible risk’, ‘low risk’, or ‘more than low risk’ according to the NHMRC.

‘Negligible risk research’ describes research in which there is no foreseeable risk of harm or discomfort; and any foreseeable risk is no more than inconvenience.

‘Low risk research’ describes research in which the only foreseeable risk is one of discomfort. Research in which the risk for participants is more serious than discomfort is not low risk.

Negligible and low risk applications are reviewed by the Human Research Ethics Approval Panel – C: Behavioural Sciences (HREAP-C). Applications that involve more than low risk are reviewed by the Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC).

Human Research Ethics Approval Panel – C: Behavioural Sciences (HREAP-C)

The HREAP-C accepts requests for review and approval by UNSW School of Psychology staff and students. All requests for review and approval by the HREAP-C MUST be submitted via the Compliance Checker for your lab or research group. See an overview of the process. If you do not know who your Compliance Checker is, please ask your supervisor.

The HREAP-C provides review and approval of:

1) NEW ‘negligible’ or ‘low risk’ projects.

To request review and approval for a new study, complete the Ethics Approval Application Form and submit to your Compliance Checker.

2) MODIFICATION to projects already approved by the HREAP-C.

To request review and approval of a modification (e.g. to add an investigator, change questions/surveys/tasks, change the study duration or recompense, recruit from new sources) complete the Modification Request form and submit to your Compliance Checker.

3) ADDITIONAL SONA PARTICIPANTS.

To request review and approval for additional SONA participants, complete the HREAP-C Application for Participants form and submit to your Compliance Checker.

Additional instructions and forms you may need to prepare your submissions are available below.