Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The “Getting Started” document (linked here: Getting Started - University of Lethbridge applicants) lists the steps you need to follow. You will first complete the CCID request form (linked here: CCID Request Form), following which the UAlberta Research Ethics Office will send you an email containing a temporary password. Once you set your permanent password, it may take 24-48 hours for the ARISE system to be updated, and then you will be able to sign in and use the ARISE system.

Contact the UAlberta Research Ethics Office at ethics@ualberta.ca to troubleshoot your CCID. Do NOT contact the general IT help desk through UAlberta, as they will just direct you to the ethics office.

You can find a link to the ARISE login page on the main page of our human research ethics website: Human Research Ethics | University of Lethbridge (ulethbridge.ca). Click on the link, then sign in using your UAlberta CCID.

You may have forgotten to change your preferred email address in ARISE to your ULethbridge email. Please check the “Getting Started” document (linked here: Getting Started - University of Lethbridge applicants) for steps on how to do this.

The UAlberta Research Ethics Office has some great tutorial videos on their website that can be helpful for learning to complete a variety of functions in the ARISE system (linked here: Alberta Research Information Services (ARISE) System | Research + Innovation (ualberta.ca)). They are also able to provide ARISE training workshops on request (contact research.ethics@uleth.ca if interested), and our Research Ethics Officer is happy to meet with any ULethbridge researchers (including faculty, students, post-docs, and external researchers) to provide one-on-one or small group assistance either in-person or virtually. If you require assistance, please reach out to us at research.ethics@uleth.ca and we would be happy to assist you!

Tutorial videos for using the ARISE system have been created by the UAlberta Research Ethics Office and are linked here: Alberta Research Information Services (ARISE) System | Research + Innovation (ualberta.ca).

The ARISE ethics application is a “smart form”, meaning that relevant sections of the form will appear based on what you select in previous sections. Thus, the length of your ARISE application form will depend on the type of research you are planning to conduct. A typical application is approximately 10 pages.

Your supervisor must also have access to the ARISE system (i.e. have a UAlberta CCID and be able to log in) AND have selected the “REB Supervisor” role to appear in the “supervisor” section of the form. Students must enter their supervisor before the ARISE application form will let them proceed beyond the first page. You will want to ensure that your supervisor has completed the first two steps in the “Getting Started” document at least one week before you plan to fill out your ethics application form to avoid delays.

Yes, the change from the old paper-based system to the new online ARISE system was permanent and ongoing. Whether ULethbridge continues in our current agreement with the UAlberta Research Ethics Office or gets our own REB back, we will use the online ARISE system for the foreseeable future.

If you have submitted an ethics protocol through ARISE, we may be able to identify your CCID username if you contact us at research.ethics@uleth.ca, or you can contact ethics@ualberta.ca. If you have not submitted an ethics protocol through ARISE before, please contact the UAlberta Research Ethics Office at ethics@ualberta.ca to identify your CCID username. If you require assistance with resetting your CCID password, please contact the UAlberta Research Ethics Office at ethics@ualberta.ca. 

First, please check that you have updated your preferred email address as described above.  You can also log into the ARISE system to check the status of your study at any time.

Once submitted, ethics applications typically take from three to six business days to move through various initial steps of the approval process. However, it is unusual to not hear anything back from the UAlberta Research Ethics Office (through the ARISE system) for over a week after submission, so if this occurs, please ensure that you have clicked “SUBMIT for REVIEW” to fully submit your ethics application. 

If you still do not have any indication that your application is moving through the approval process, please reach out to us by emailing research.ethics@uleth.ca or ethics@ualberta.ca and we will assist you.
 

Log into ARISE, click on your study, and click “View” beside “Letter of Approval” near the top of the page. This will open your approval certificate in a new tab. If you would like to save a PDF copy, you can click "Print", then use the "Microsoft Print to PDF" function (Windows) or "Save as PDF" function (Mac) to convert the web page into a savable PDF document. If you have questions about this, please reach out to us at research.ethics@uleth.ca.

Yes, ethics approval is required for all research involving human participants, their data, or their biological materials. The requirement for ethics approval rests on whether or not the project meets the definition of human participant research, regardless of whether the project is funded or not.

Yes, all research or activities that meet the criteria for human participant research, including student projects, require ethics approval prior to participant recruitment, data collection, or working with human biological materials.

Yes, all research or activities that meet the criteria for human participant research (including student projects that are part of courses such as independent studies or honour's theses) require ethics approval prior to participant recruitment, data collection, or working with human biological materials.

Yes, all research or activities that meet the criteria for human participant research require ethics approval prior to participant recruitment, data collection, or working with human biological materials. However, for student “mini” projects there is an abbreviated “Instructor/Course-Based” research project application form in the ARISE system that can be filled out by the instructor prior to the beginning course and/or prior to the students conducting their mini research projects. To access this abbreviated form, log into ARISE, create a “New Human Study”, and on the first page for “Type of research/study” in Section 1.1 (6.0), select “Instructor Course-based (where all students in a class, individually or in groups, conduct the same or similar MINIMAL risk research assignments, following project guidelines provided by instructor)”. For more information, please refer to the Course Based Guidelines. If you have additional questions about this process or would like assistance, please reach out to us at research.ethics@uleth.ca.

Please consult the following guidance Differences between Research, Quality Improvement and Quality Assurance for information on what qualifies as quality assurance/quality improvement. It is advisable that you complete a Request a Determination of Ethics Review Form to receive an official determination from the REB. As per the TCPS2, the REB has the final say as to the requirement for ethics approval. Erroneous self-determinations can lead to academic or other legal consequences.

Yes, these types of projects usually require human research ethics review and there is a specific short form tailored to these types of projects. In an ARISE ethics application, select “Instructor Course-Based Research” in Section 1.1 (6.0) and the ARISE “smart form” will appear on the following page for you to fill out once you click “Continue” from the first page. Once approved, this type of ethics application provides “blanket approval” for each of the mini research projects within a single course under the supervision of the instructor.

Please fill out the Request a Determination of Ethics Review form (linked here: Request a Determination of Ethics Review (google.com)) and the UAlberta Research Ethics Office will get back to you with an official determination of whether or not your proposed project would require ethics approval.

Yes, you would still need ethics approval here if you are working with human research participants, their data, or their biological materials (including materials related to human reproduction) even if your external collaborator has their own ethics approval for the project. There are some specific exceptions where a project wouldn’t need ethics approval (such as when using completely publicly available information), but in general, if your collaborator from another institution has an ethics protocol, you are also required to submit information to the UAlberta Research Ethics Office using the suitable form. 

If you are unsure if your involvement in a particular project would require ethics approval, submit the Request a Determination of Ethics Review form (linked here) and the UAlberta Research Ethics Office will get back to you with an official answer. 

If you are unsure if you would need to submit a Category A form, an abbreviated ARISE application, a full ARISE application, or a pSite application, please contact research.ethics@uleth.ca and our Research Ethics Officer will assist you in identifying the suitable process for your specific situation.

No, you do not need ethics approval for the design stage of a project involving human research participants. For example, meeting with members of a particular community to design a research project or develop research questions in coordination with them would not require ethics approval. However, ethics approval will be required prior to recruiting human participants, collecting data from human participants, or working with human participant research data.

No. We have made a decision to transition human ethics applications to the ARISE online platform hosted by UAlberta.

We view the current environment as a pilot test for what future options we have for supporting safe and ethical research with humans. Feedback will be sought throughout 2022 and 2023 to learn more about the benefits and challenges of sharing human ethics review and approval functions with UAlberta vs. hosting all functions solely at ULethbridge (while continuing to use the ARISE online platform). Many options exist for a hybrid UAlberta-ULethbridge REB and we want to consider and discuss all options before making a decision.

Decisions will not be made without an extensive pilot period, consultation and feedback options, and consideration of both researcher workload and TCPS2 requirements.

At the beginning of November 2021, multiple issues suddenly arose that made it impossible for our REB (called the HPRC) to continue to function in accordance with the mandatory requirements from the Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS2). Since health/biomedical research at ULethbridge had been reviewed by the UAlberta Research Ethics Office (REO) since 2014, we arranged for the UAlberta REO to support all of our human ethics protocol revisions and approvals so as not to disrupt and halt research falling under these requirements. At this time, we have an ongoing temporary agreement with the UAlberta REO for them to review and approve all our human research ethics protocols, and we are strategizing a long-term solution.

This is certainly a possibility! Our office is diligently working towards seeing if this would be feasible in the future. Our current arrangement with the UAlberta Research Ethics Office is renewed on an ongoing basis.

The most important requirement for getting our own REB back is having enough ULethbridge faculty members volunteer to serve on the REB. According to the TCPS2-2022 (linked here: Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans – TCPS 2 (2022) (ethics.gc.ca)), all REBs in Canada are required to have a minimum of 5 members with various types of expertise (in research, ethics, and relevant laws), and to have additional members in proportion to the number and types of ethics applications received. Here at ULethbridge, we would require a minimum of 10 members with various areas of research ethics expertise to meet the TCPCS2-2022 minimum requirements and to support the number and diversity of ethics applications we receive.

*Note that health and biomedical research applications would continue to be reviewed by the UAlberta REB as mandated by the Minister of Health and the Health Information Act Designation Regulation.

We are always looking for additional ULethbridge faculty members to serve on the current UAlberta/ULethbridge Shared REB! This is an excellent way to fulfill the service requirements of your faculty position. Faculty serving on the shared REB can generally expect to spend 4-6 hours per month reviewing ethics applications and attending regular meetings (depending on the specific REB they are serving on). For more information, or to volunteer, please contact our Ethics and Grant Coordinator at research.ethics@uleth.ca.

The current average time from initial submission of a minimal risk ULethbridge ethics application to approval is around two weeks, with most ethics applications receiving approval in approximately one month. The REB specialist(s) and delegated reviewer(s) may request revisions as part of this process, so some of this timeframe depends on how quickly you are able to revise and submit the requested revisions. Review times are also impacted by submission volume and reviewer availability.

We certainly encourage discussion around the requested modifications, especially when the modifications may substantially affect the research or pose an undue burden on the researcher (i.e. significant financial burden). If a requested modification may not be realistic/feasible, please provide additional details through the ARISE system to your assigned REB specialist. If this does not resolve the issue, please contact the Chair of the REB you applied to (REB 1, REB 2, REB 3, or REB 4). If you and the Chair are not able to resolve the issue, you can proceed with the formal appeal process. For additional information about the appeal process, contact research.ethics@uleth.ca to set up a time to discuss your appeal with the VP Research (or designate).

One of the main purposes of human research ethics review is to prevent the harm of participants or society as a result of research. Many of the past harms to human participants from research activities were within the realm of medical research, and these atrocities led to international guidelines for the treatment of human participants in research. Here in Canada, our national guideline is the Tri-Council Policy Statement for Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS2-2022), and this policy takes a proactive approach to preventing the harm of human participants in research by upholding the three core principles: Respect for Persons, Concern for Welfare, and Justice. In upholding these principles as defined in the TCPS2-2022, issues such as informed consent, voluntary participation in research, data confidentiality, assessment of the risks versus the benefits of participating, addressing real or potential conflicts of interest, and others are applicable to both medical research and non-medical research (such as interviews or surveys). While some of the requirements of the TCPS2-2022 may seem overly strict for human participant research in the social sciences and humanities, the same three core principles apply and must be upheld to protect human participants, society, and researchers.

While some of the questions in the ethics application form may seem daunting, it is important to keep in mind that the process requires us to consider these important and complex questions for good reasons that will ultimately improve the outcomes of our research, the validity of our data, and the safety of everyone involved.

It is also important to recognize that our current human research ethics process reflects a colonized, Eurocentric point of view. Going forward, we are hoping to incorporate more Indigenous values such as knowledge sharing, but we acknowledge that we have a long way to go.

As an institution that receives Tri-Agency funding (NSERC, CIHR, and SSHRC), we are required to ensure that all research and other activities carried out by people affiliated with ULethbridge follow the Tri-Council Policy Statement for Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS2-2022). These requirements ensure that research at Canadian institutions follows the highest ethical standards and complies with the three core principles of Respect for Persons, Concern for Welfare, and Justice in research. There are some components of the TCPS2-2022 document that were written to be more general to remain broadly applicable to different institutions, so some institutions have some institution-specific requirements in these areas. However, the main principles and most of the requirements are the same across all Canadian institutions that receive Tri-Agency funding. 

The ULethbridge contact for human research ethics questions is the Research Ethics Officer, Danika Dorchak. Danika can be reached at research.ethics@uleth.ca or 403-382-7198. Her office is B629, which is inside the Office of Research & Innovation Services (B610).

The UAlberta Research Ethics Office can be reached by emailing ethics@ualberta.ca, or if you have questions about your submitted ARISE application, you can send an email to your REB Specialist within ARISE or find their email address through the ARISE system by clicking on their name.

Yes, we would be happy to arrange this! Please contact our office at research.ethics@uleth.ca to discuss what type of presentation you would like to have.