Ethics approval for a thesis outside the US: REC, REB, HREC and NACOSTI

IRB stands for Institutional Review Board, and it is the US name for the committee that approves research involving people. Most advice online uses it, and students elsewhere are left wondering who their equivalent is. Every country with a university system has one. The name, the rules, and the order of steps differ.

The principle is the same everywhere. You do not collect data from people until an independent committee has read your plan and approved it.

What the committee is called

• United Kingdom: a university research ethics committee (REC). Research involving NHS patients or staff also needs approval from the Health Research Authority.
• European Union: a university ethics committee, and the GDPR governs any personal data you collect. See our guide to thesis defense in Europe for what the GDPR asks of student researchers.
• Canada: a research ethics board (REB), working under the national policy known as TCPS 2.
• Australia: a human research ethics committee (HREC), working under the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research.
• South Africa: a university research ethics committee. Health research goes to a committee registered with the National Health Research Ethics Council.
• Kenya: a university or institutional ethics review committee, and a research permit from NACOSTI, the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation. The permit application usually follows ethics approval, and NACOSTI's published requirements change, so check its current guidance before you apply.

Your own university's research office publishes the forms and the calendar. Begin there, because the committee's rules decide what you can do.

What every committee asks for

The documents are close to the same in all of these systems. You will need most of the following.

• A clear statement of your research question and why it needs human participants.
• A description of the method: who you will recruit, how, and what you will ask them to do.
• An information sheet that tells participants what the study is about, what taking part involves, and the risks.
• A consent form, and a plan for consent where participants cannot read, are under 18, or are in a position where refusing is hard.
• A plan for confidentiality and data storage: where the data is kept, who can see it, how long it is kept, and how it is destroyed.
• The instruments themselves: the interview guide, questionnaire, or observation protocol.
• A statement of any risk to participants or to you, and what you will do if a participant is distressed.

If you recruit through an organization, such as a school, a hospital, or an employer, you also need a letter of permission from it. Some committees will not review the application without one.

The mistakes that delay approval

1. Applying late. Committees meet on a schedule. Missing one meeting can cost a month or more, and your data collection waits with it.
2. Collecting before approval. Data gathered before the approval date cannot be used. This includes pilot interviews and informal conversations that you later want to quote.
3. Vague data plans. "Stored securely" tells the committee nothing. Say where, in what format, with what password protection, and for how many years.
4. A consent form written for the committee. Participants must understand it. Write it at a reading level that suits them, and in their language where needed.
5. Changing the method afterward. A new instrument, a new participant group, or a changed site usually needs an amendment. Ask before you change anything.

What to write in your thesis

Chapter 3 or your methods chapter needs a short ethics section. State the committee that approved the study, the reference number and the date, how you obtained consent, how you protect confidentiality, and how you store the data. Name the committee the way your university does. Do not write "IRB" if your university has a REC.

Our guide to what to write about IRB approval in Chapter 3 shows the structure of that section, and our guide to IRB approval, step by step covers the process in the US. The steps differ in detail, but the reasoning matches. If you are interviewing participants, read our guide to thesis interviews.

One more check

Committees change their rules, and a country's national requirements change more slowly than their forms. Read your university's current guidance, and ask the research office if a step is unclear. For the wider differences between the systems, see our guide to thesis vs dissertation.

If your ethics section or methods chapter needs a second reader before you submit, our research design and methodology review is built for it.