Research Ethics

All research carried out under the auspices of the Trinity College Dublin will be

“conducted ethically and with integrity, and shall be founded upon the principles of honesty, reliability, objectivity, impartiality, independence, fairness, respect, accountability, open communication, compliance with duties of care, and responsibility for future generations of researchers. (IUA 2019: 8)”.

Furthermore, academic journals and research funders are increasingly requiring that research is reviewed and approved by the relevant research ethics committee (REC) and that evidence of this be provided.

The first step is determining whether your research requires ethical approval from the appropriate research ethics committee (REC). Projects involving humans and/or their data require ethical approval, unless they have the following characteristics:

Research utilising information contained in publicly available judgments and decisions of courts and other recognised adjudicatory and enforcement bodies.
Research utilising pre-existing datasets which were generated lawfuly, and in accordance with any applicable ethical guidelines/requirements (e.g., the Declaration of Helsinki).
Archival research utilising information contained in public repositories, that is in accordance with the applicable terms of use or access.

If ethics approval is required, the process to follow depends on your are a Faculty/PhD student or an Undergraduate or MSc Student.

Faculty and PhD Students: REAMS

Applications from Faculty and PhD students are now processed through the Research Ethics Application Management system (REAMS). (Please note that all academic staff and research students are automatically registered to use REAMS).

Both the TBS and the Faculty Ethics Committees work on a rolling deadline and deal with applications as they are submitted via REAMs. Based on the questions you provide in REAMS, the system will determine whether your application is considered by the TBS or Faculty ethics committee.

REAMS can be accessed here. Further guidance on how to log in to REAMS is available here: REAMs- How to login- TCD

Staff can also access more guidance on research ethics on the TBS intranet.

Undergraduate and MSc Students

Undergraduate and Postgraduate students at Masters level must speak to their supervisors/module leaders for guidance on the existing systems that are in place outside of the REAMS system.

Any queries can be directed to TBS.Research@tcd.ie.

Please consult the TCD Good Research Practice Guide for detailed discussion of good research practice and the role of research ethics.