Best practice guidance

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.

List of CUREC best practice guidance documents
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.
Please also see the University guidance on research involving security sensitive research material: Guidance on research involving security-sensitive research material   

All
Handling Distress or Mental Health Problems in Participants in CUREC-Approved Research 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
Guidance on conducting non-invasive measurements of blood pressure, including how to handle abnormal results Mainly MS IDREC
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 All

 

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