My student is going to do a field placement, internship or practicum at another institution. Does the University of Guelph REB need to review the research the student will undertake?

TCPS2 states the following in the discussion after Article 6.1:
"Members of an institution (i.e., its faculty, staff and students) may be affiliated with other institutions, or may be engaged in consulting or other professional activities in a separate enterprise, or in student co-op work or field placements. If members of the institution make reference to their affiliation to the institution, or use any of its resources when engaging in research, they should submit their research proposal to their institutional REB for research ethics review in accordance with this Policy. Where student co-op work or field placements involve components of research that require research ethics review, institutions and organizations hosting co-op student researchers may consider specifying in advance (e.g., in policies, agreements or contracts for co-op student placements) the roles and responsibilities pertaining to the ethics review of research involving humans of the host organization versus those of the institution.
Should the institution determine that some situations warrant an exception to the requirement for REB review, the basis and conditions for case-by-case exceptions shall be clearly documented in the institutional policies. Case-by-case exceptions may be determined by such factors as the degree to which the members’ affiliation with the institution is their primary affiliation, or by how practical it is to distinguish the capacity in which the member is conducting the research, and the participants’ reasonable perceptions of this capacity. Other factors include the availability of other avenues through which the member may address the guidance in this Policy outside the institution, including the possibility of sharing responsibility for research ethics review, and the methods in place to address real, potential or perceived conflict of interest issues."

This document will outline the criteria for determining whether or not the work of the student requires ethical review by the University of Guelph REB.

  1. If the student is undertaking research involving human participants for an external organization which does not have an ethics review board, and it is deemed appropriate (on a case-by-case basis) by the Director, Research Ethics, for that student to obtain research ethics clearance, then the University of Guelph can act as the board of record for the project and the University of Guelph REB shall receive the application and issue clearance prior to the commencement of the research project. The policies and procedures established by the University of Guelph will take precedent over the policies and procedures of the external organization.
  2. If the student is undertaking research involving human participants for an external organization, and that organization has an ethics review board, the student must follow the policies and procedures of the external organization to obtain clearance from their ethics board. The University of Guelph REB shall be informed that this clearance has been obtained, but all monitoring, follow-up and compliance would be undertaken by the external organization. A copy of the certificate of ethical clearance from the placement institution shall become part of the student’s file. Note that the agreement drafted between the University of Guelph and the external organization regarding the student placement must specify that research ethics review is the responsibility of the external organization.
  3. If the student is undertaking research involving human participants, and
    1. if the documents associated with the research clearly indicate that the work is being done by the external organization, not by a student or the University of Guelph, and
    2. none of the information gathered during the course of the research will be reported to the University of Guelph, then

ethics clearance need not be sought for the project from the University of Guelph. Such students would be carrying out research projects which fall under the mandate of the placement organization and would be carried out within the normal course of the work of the placement organization.

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Human Ethics
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Determining when University of Guelph REB approval is required