Best practice guidance
Guidance documents for researchers
CUREC has approved best practice guidance documents for use by researchers. The use of best practice guidance is not mandatory – researchers should decide whether available guidance is relevant to their research. Some guidance documents are more suited to applications made to specific CUREC subcommittees, as indicated in the table below.
For guidance on oral and/or written consent processes, please see our Informed consent page.
| Best practice guidance | Topic | Relevant to which subcommittees? |
|---|---|---|
|
Researcher safety, including interviewing in non-public places and considerations when employing local/casual staff for research projects/fieldwork
|
All | |
| Guidance on identifying and addressing ethical issues relating to qualitative research, particularly ethnographic research | Mainly SSH IDREC | |
| Guidance on elite and expert interviewing. This guidance may also be useful for researchers conducting other types of interview, including oral history interviews. | All | |
| Research involving 'competent youths' | All | |
| Guidance on making payments (financial or otherwise) to research participants | All | |
| Guidance on addressing the ethical issues associated with internet-mediated research, including research involving social media and online surveys | All | |
|
Guidance for applicants whose research may potentially fall within the scope of the 'Prevent’ duty. |
All | |
| Studies where there is a possibility of identifying psychological distress or disorder in non-NHS participants | All | |
| Collection, protection, storage and management of data collected for research purposes (including anonymisation and identifiers) | All | |
| Guidance on conducting research interviews, both in person and remotely | All | |
|
Guidance on developing and using mobile apps for research involving human participants or personal data. The same design and privacy principles can be applied to any software developed for research purposes, but this guidance pays special attention to the risks that are most likely for mobile devices like phones and tablets |
All | |
| Consulting and/or photographing archival material (eg with restricted access) | Mainly SSH IDREC | |
| The use of human tissue samples from healthy volunteers: when and where to apply for ethical review | All | |
| Guidance on addressing ethical issues associated with conducting research outside the UK, including the need for local ethics approval, enabling equitable research and guidance on the ethics review requirements for large, collaborative research grants | Mainly SSH IDREC but may be relevant to researchers based in other divisions | |
|
|
Guidance on addressing a wide range of ethical issues that can arise during fieldwork, regardless of the type of research being conducted. | Mainly SSH IDREC but may be relevant to researchers based in other divisions |
