Frequently asked questions

At least two different points of data storage must be maintained by the applicant – usually to the University of York Google Drive and on a hard drive that is either encrypted, or otherwise password protected. These must be kept separate from one another (ie, in two different locations).

Researchers are encouraged to reflect on how long they need to keep their data for - this should consider timeframes for analysis and publishing as well as any potential re-analysis that might be needed. The university does not impose any timeframes, but it is worth noting that some funding bodies do. It is the responsibility of the researcher to check the guidelines from funding bodies

Research participants must grant informed consent. All research participants must be given the opportunity to consent to participating in the research, and to withdraw if they so choose to. You must provide your participants with contact details of who to contact if they wish to withdraw their data, and must document the names of these participants for future confidential reference (unless the data collected is truly anonymous, that is, you don’t know who the participants are - for example, in the case of anonymous surveys). If interviews/focus groups are being conducted, informed consent forms (with signature, these could be typed or digital signatures) and an information sheet must be provided to participants. If a survey is conducted, an information sheet should be available to participants.

If you are collecting personal data or special category personal data (as defined under the General Data Protection Regulation), you need to use the approved template for your information sheet. See the Guidance on producing and examples of information sheets and consent forms. For online surveys you can attach the information sheet to the start of your survey and have the consent form as part of the survey itself. In these cases surveys should be programmed so that participants won’t be able to progress with any data entering if they haven’t consented to being part of the project.

Should research participants wish to withdraw from your project, you will need to inform them, on their information sheets and consent forms, of the last date when such withdrawal will be possible. When setting this date we encourage researchers to think about the time they would need to modify their outputs if someone were to withdraw. 

It is also important to differentiate between raw data withdrawal and the withdrawal of information that has already been incorporated into outputs. If something has already been incorporated to outputs, those outputs cannot be withdrawn - this needs to be clear to participants. You can manage this by setting up clear timeframes and making sure the information is clear in the information sheet. However, raw data can be removed at any time. So, you might have already incorporated the data to an output already published, but the participant can request that you withdraw their raw data so you cannot incorporate it in future outputs. Clarity is key here.

If your research guarantees anonymity, then there must be no possible way that participants might be identified. If the organisation being studied or the sample size is small, if job titles are specified, or if the subject matter is very narrow, the potential for identification is much higher. In these cases, you must specify that all efforts will be made to keep participants’ identities confidential, but that complete anonymity cannot be guaranteed. This must be made explicit to participants before they consent to contribute to the research.

Participants have the right to access the findings derived from their contributions to research. Unless specified during the informed consent process, provisions must be made to ensure results are communicated back to these participants – e.g., through distribution of the dissertation, through web or other forms of publication, etc. Your application will be returned to you for resubmission if you do not articulate a means to share your results with participants. This can be as simple as allowing the participant to read your work.

The approval process is complicated, involves many parties, and can be lengthy depending upon the number of revisions required. Turn-around time for the first review is 10 working days during semester time, and longer if outside of semester time, meaning that these applications must be planned well in advance. Research using human data cannot proceed without ethics approval, so please attend to the application process as quickly as possible upon designing the project.  

Retrospective approval will not be granted.  

Ethics applications may be returned to you if they have not been properly edited and proofread. Information sheets, consent forms and associated submissions must be legible and grammatically coherent. If we require any revisions please note that the 10 working days timeframe will be reset. 

Yes, you should follow your department's procedures for risk assessment before undertaking any fieldwork, interviews etc, and take appropriate precautions to ensure your personal safety. 

No. University Ethics Committee policy states that retrospective approval is fundamentally unethical and therefore applications for retrospective ethical approval will automatically be rejected.

This means that the research cannot be used. If you notice you have made a mistake and should have secured ethics approval, and you didn’t, or you are not sure if you needed it, discuss this with your supervisor if you are a student, and contact the Ethics Committee for advice on how to proceed. If you are a staff member please contact the Arts and Humanities Ethics Committee.

There are types of data collection in which participants are not just anonymous at output level, their identity is also unknown to the researcher. This could be the case of online surveys. So, how can someone withdraw their data if you don’t know who they are and what data corresponds to them? The best way forward is to embed a method of data identification in the survey. For example, you could ask participants to enter a memorable word. In the case of wanting to withdraw their raw data they would then email the researcher and quote the memorable word, you can then identify the data and delete it. There are also ways in which you can auto-generate ID numbers onto surveys and then ask participants to make a note of that number so that they can quote it in an email if they wish to withdraw. Participants should be informed of the process you are using.

Anonymity by design is the most commonly used method of data collection, but it doesn’t mean that this is always the best way forward, and sometimes there are ethical issues in anonymity processes that researchers need to reflect on. If you feel your research is better suited to a non-anonymous framework, that is ok, you just need to explain why in your application. For example, you might be interviewing professionals about their work, by naming them you are crediting them as contributors who are key to your work.

By not mentioning them one could argue that you are appropriating their knowledge. There are also cases in which anonymisation processes could risk erasing contributors’ identity and risk re-traumatisation. It all depends on what research you are doing, what the aims are and what contributors you are working with.

Data repositories are used for data that has the potential to be used by others and in cases in which the researcher has secured the necessary permissions from participants for depositing and reusing data. There are several different repositories, including Research Data York and Archaeology Data Service. Choice of repositories will depend on type of data and discipline. You don’t need to use a repository but if you are funded you would need to check any requirements from your funding body.

• For more information on repositories please visit the data repositories subject guide.