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Research Ethics Administrator Survey

Dear CAREB colleague,

You are invited to participate in an online survey conducted by Lori Walker, under the supervision of Dr. Michelle McGinn, Associate Professor in the Department of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies, Faculty of Education, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. Lori is the Senior Research Ethics Officer at Brock University and is conducting this research as partial fulfillment of a Master of Education degree. The data collected will also be shared with the Canadian Association of Research Ethics Boards.

The title of this research project is: The Roles, Responsibilities, and Professional Identities of Canadian Research Ethics Administrators. You have been asked to participate because you are a research ethics administrator. If you have other colleagues within your institution who are responsible for the administrative aspects of ethics review we ask that you share this invitation with them. It is important that we gather information from all members of your research ethics team/office (excluding senior administration for the institution). This is particularly important if you have multiple REBs, each with their own administrative support, as each administrator will be able to answer best for their own role and will be most familiar with their REB's workload. All office members may not be able to answer all questions, but the coding used will enable us to group institutional responses together to get a full picture.

Research ethics administrators play an integral role in protecting individuals from the potential risks of participating in research by coordinating institutional human research protection programs. As the Canadian research regulatory environment evolves, so do the responsibilities of research ethics administrators. However, there is not much information available to define the emergent roles, responsibilities, and professional identity of this unique occupational group and its important contribution to Canada's research enterprise.

The purpose of this study is to describe the roles, responsibilities, and professional identities of research ethics administrators in Canada. It is hoped that this study will benefit research ethics administrators by profiling their profession in a manner that could inform professional development and support for their work.

For more information on this research project, please visit the survey website at:

http://www.brocku.ca/reasurvey/

Should you have any questions, please contact:

Lori Walker
Student Investigator
MEd Candidate
Senior Research Ethics Officer
Brock Research
Lori.walker@brocku.ca
(905) 688 5550 x 4876

Michelle McGinn
Faculty Supervisor
Associate Professor
Department of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies
Faculty of Education, Brock University
mcginn@brocku.ca
(905) 688 5550 x 4730