10. Ethics¶
All students taking Major and Minor Projects are required to complete a short ethics process in relation to their work. Whilst this is of particular relevance to anyone planning to undertake user evaluation, it is relevant for everyone’s professional development to be aware of these issues.
This topic will be discussed in the lectures.
10.1. Use of ethics process for undergraduate projects¶
The University has a policy that covers the ethics of research. This means that anything that involves the study of views, opinions, actions (etc.) of people needs to be assessed to make sure that we are taking appropriate care of what questions we are asking and what we do with the results. If your work involves other types of interactions with humans or animals, we also need to assess those interactions.
The University’s Ethics process is mostly designed to cover research projects. The University has determined that the Major and Minor projects in Computer Science will be covered by this process, as well.
At one level, this is also good for your professional development. Before you undertake user studies, it would be good practice to think through what you are doing, why you are doing it and what you expect to learn from it. Alongside that, there are professional issues of securely handling any information.
You still need to complete the form, even if your project does not involve handling data or involve humans or animals. The form will remind you about your obligations regarding the use of data and, in particular, third-party data.
If your work will involve a user survey or evaluation, we will provide forms that you must show to your participants.
10.2. Outline ethics process¶
You will be asked to complete an online form. Details will be provided by the module coordinator in the first half of your project.
Form 1 - If your project does not involve a user evaluation or work with humans or animals, then you must still complete the online ethics form. Answer the questions to confirm that you are not involving humans or animals in your work. This will take a couple of minutes to complete.
Your form will be reviewed. Depending on the answers that you give, you may be required to complete Form 2 as well.
Form 2 - If your project does involve a user evaluation or work with humans or animals, then you need to answer a second form to explain the nature of the work that you are proposing. Discuss this with your supervisor before completing Form 2.
Once your form has been submitted, you will receive a PDF file that contains a copy of the answers that you provided. You will upload that to Blackboard as a record that you have completed the process.
On both forms, you will be asked to add a paragraph to outline your project and describe if and how data is gathered and how humans and/or animals are involved in your work. This will be required for us to review your form(s).
You will typically receive a response within 5 days. You might be asked to provide further information so that we can to assess what you plan to do.
You will be notified when the process is complete. If modifications need to be made to the work that you are planning, then we will discuss them with you and your supervisor.
