Frequently Asked Questions

In principle, all research involving human participants, as well as all research involving human biological materials, is subject to ethics review.

There are, however, some exemptions. Please consult this document and consult with the staff  of the Research Ethics Unit if you are not sure if your research is subject to review.

Research that poses greater than minimal risk to participants is reviewed by the Human Research Ethics committee (HREC). Faculty research that is considered minimal risk is reviewed via expedited review by members of HREC.

Minimal risk student research is reviewed via expedited review by members of the College of Ethics Reviewers (CER). If student research is conducted exclusively for pedagogical purposes, it can be reviewed at the departmental level. Please contact your academic department for more information about departmental review.

See this flowchart for a summary.

Minimal risk research is defined as “research in which the probability and magnitude of possible harms implied by participation in the research is no greater than those encountered by participants in those aspects of their daily life that relate to the research.” See Chapter 2 of the Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS) for more information. If you have questions as to whether your research qualifies as minimal risk, please contact the staff of the Research Ethics unit.

The Human Research Ethics Committee meets on the following days to review greater than minimal risk research. Documents for such research must be submitted by the deadline listed if they are to be reviewed at the corresponding meeting.

All submissions require a Summary Protocol Form, available on the Ethics page. Depending on the nature of your research the following documents may also be required.

• Consent forms or consent script
• Scholarly review form
• Recruitment materials, such as posters, materials for social media and phone scripts
• Instruments used to gather data, such as questionnaires or interview guides
• Debriefing script
• List of resources to whom participants can be referred if necessary
• Documentation of support from collaborating organizations, such as school boards or Aboriginal communities

Faculty members must submit studies for review via ConRAD. The link to ConRAD is also found on the Carrefour's My CU Account page. Learn more about ConRAD.

Students should submit studies for review by email.

Once a complete submission is received and is subsequently sent out for review, a first response will be returned to the researcher in about four weeks. A first response may either be a full approval or a request for additional information and/or clarifications. The estimated turnaround time for processing student and faculty protocols is of 4-6 weeks, from the time the protocol is submitted to the time the certificate is issued.

These processing times also depend greatly on factors such as complexity and risk level, completeness of the application, and the response time of researchers to comments and concerns.

The most common approach to documenting consent is to provide potential participants with a written consent form that explains the research in understandable terms, and in enough detail to allow them to make an informed decision about participating. They are asked to sign the form if they agree to participate.

Please refer to the templates on the Ethics page for more information on developing a consent form.

In some circumstances, it may not be possible or desirable to use a written consent form and an alternative approach to documenting consent can be used. In such cases, please contact the staff of the Ethics Unit.

Research that implies greater than minimal risk to participants must be reviewed for scholarly merit. However, the following is deemed to have been reviewed for scholarly merit, and a Scholarly Review Form (SRF) is not required:

• Research that has been funded through a competitive peer review process
• Student research that has been vetted through a successful thesis or dissertation proposal defense

In all other cases, an SRF must be submitted for greater than minimal risk research.

There is no need to submit an SRF for research that implies, at most, minimal risk to participants.

After reviewing your application, the reviewers may have either Queries or Conditions. If so, you will be notified by email and provided with your status, comments and complete instructions.

Please respond to each comment either via email or in a separate document. Along with the responses, please provide copies of the revised documents. All changes to the SPF and any revised appendices should be clearly identified with highlighting or bolded.

For any change to your approved application, please submit an amendment request.”

The amendment request must contain:

1. A cover email requesting an amendment to an approved protocol.
2. A separate document in PDF outlining any modifications with a clear, detailed explanation as to why the change is being made. Please list which documents and sections these changes apply to (SPF and/or supporting documents).
3. Revised SPF/supporting documents with all changes clearly highlighted. Do not resend all your appendices. Only those that pertain to the amendment request.
4. Any appendices that are new, or have been revised. These must be provided as separate documents saved in PDF.

The amendment request may be submitted by return email to oor.ethics@concordia.ca.

Ethics approval is generally valid for one year; the expiry date will appear on your Certificate of Ethical Acceptability. You must submit an annual report in order to maintain approval. Please submit annual reports to the Ethics Unit one month before expiry.

Ethics approval must be maintained for as long as there is a chance of needing to contact participants. For example, if there is a chance of needing to contact participants to inform them of incidental findings, to ask follow-up questions about an earlier interview, or to disseminate results of the study, ethics approval must be maintained.

When you reach the point where there is no longer a chance of needing to contact participants, please submit an annual report indicating that the study is completed.

Most research institutions in Canada have agreed to adhere to Tri-Council Policy Statement, and must therefore review all research conducted under their auspices.

See the flowchart of research under Concordia's auspices.

This means that a research project may be subject to review at multiple institutions. To minimize potential complications, please contact the staff of the Research Ethics Unit to discuss how to proceed.

The Panel on Research Ethics offers an online tutorial on research ethics.

Furthermore, the staff of the Research Ethics Unit is available to provide one-on-one consultations and training sessions on research ethics. Please contact them for more information.

The staff of the Research Ethics Unit  of the Research Ethics Unit can help you with any issues related to research ethics.

You can access ConRAD directly. A link to ConRAD can also be found on Carrefour's My CU Account page. This link will bring you directly to your personal homepage. 

ConRAD lets you submit internal research documents electronically (grant submission forms, UROs, compliance applications, etc.). If you are a committee member or signing authority, you can also access, review, and approve applications electronically through the system. 

Currently available forms include the Grant Submission Form (GSF), URO, Summary Protocol Form (SPF), and Animal Use Summary Protocol Form (AUSPF). More will be added over time. 

ConRAD is designed to save two valuable resources: namely, time and paper. This system captures all of your research activity over time, providing you with a comprehensive record of all your research initiatives. Even documents (full grant applications, consent forms, etc.) can be housed in the system for quick and easy future reference. Post-approval activities, such as compliance annual report submissions and extension requests for internal awards, can also be submitted online. 

Yes, the old paper-based forms will remain available until further notice. However, ConRAD significantly simplifies the submission process, so we encourage all researchers to log in and explore the system. 

Currently, direct ConRAD access is restricted to Concordia’s Loyola and SGW campuses. To access from off-campus, you will need to connect through the Virtual Private Network. 

You can attach a saved document from your files in the Document Tracking TAB under “Current Documents”. For large files they may have to be separated into two documents as the system has a file limit size of 5MB.

If you do not already have a username and password for the system, please send an email to conrad@algol.concordia.ca.

For ConRAD-related questions, please send an email to conrad@algol.concordia.ca.

If you are trying to access ConRAD off-campus, you must login to Concordia's VPN service. For VPN-related support, contact the IITS Service Desk at 514-848-2424 ext. 7613 or by email at help@concordia.ca.

You can access ConRAD (Concordia Research Administration Database) directly. A link to ConRAD can also be found on Carrefour's My CU Account page. All grant applications are now routed through Concordia’s electronic ConRAD system.

For ConRAD-related questions, please send an email to conrad@algol.concordia.ca.

For VPN-related support, contact the IITS Service Desk at 514-848-2424, ext. 7613, or by email at help@concordia.ca.