For Psychology undergraduates and Masters students: What to include in your E2 form
Background and rationale: This includes a full description (with full referencing).
Aims and objectives: States what you think your study will show – i.e. what differences, associations, effects, what theory tested?
Methods of data collection: This should be as complete as a short version of your method section – so treat it as a draft of your method section and be comprehensive rather than brief
Recruitment of participants: Think it through and describe how you intend to do this carefully and in detail. How will you approach potential participants (poster, in corridor, through school/company, why these people, how will you select the appropriate people (e.g. native English speakers, people with school age children or elderly parent etc?) How will you make sure nobody wastes their time volunteering if they do not fit your criteria? What EXACT procedure will you use to gain informed consent? When will potential participants get the information sheet and how? Will anyone be excluded? Why?
Potential adverse effects: Could your project cause distress or disquiet (e.g. if investigation migration, are you likely to provoke your participants into recounting events that are distressing to them?) How will you deal with this? Is the risk of distress even on a tiny number of people sufficiently severe that you need to provide some information about sources of support? If the answer is ‘yes’, discuss with your supervisor whether or not your research is really justified (especially if it is at undergraduate level and therefore unlikely to result in publishable material).
Potential benefits: These are usually only to you, but very occasionally the research has some immediate benefit to the individuals involved. If this is not the case, then say that there are no immediate benefits to the participants apart from any intrinsic interest in being involved in the research. However, where there are potential adverse effects, in principle there should be some benefit to the scientific community at least, to outweigh them.
Participant information sheet(s): Follow the guidelines on the Psychology research ethics website . Feel free to copy templates and use wording from them that is appropriate to your research. Plagiarism is NOT an issue here.
Information sheets need to be on Oxford Brookes headed paper and you will need to ask your supervisor about this or use the documents on the resources page and edit the content to suit your needs. Always use your Brookes email address for all academic business and never include your home address. If you must include a telephone number, it should be a mobile phone number and only include it if you are happy to have it fall into the hands of people you do not know. Ensure you have piloted the information sheet and debrief (if you have one) with at least one person at the lower end of the literacy level of your proposed sample - and say that you have done so in this section (this is BPS policy).
Attach any short requests for help (for example if you are recruiting online and there is then a link to the full participant information). If this is the case, check the guidance on online recruitment and research.
Consent forms: Use the consent forms on the resources page or university research ethics website as a starting point and revise them to fit your needs.
Draft questionnaires, interview or test protocols: check that these are appropriate for the study and attach all of them to the application
Gatekeepers: A gatekeeper is any individual or organization you approach to help you reach potential participants. Gatekeepers must give full written approval for you to use them and this approval must be submitted to the Psychology Research Ethics Officer (Morag MacLean) before you begin data collection. Draft letters to these ‘gatekeepers’ seeking their cooperation must be included with the E2 form. YOUR SUPERVISOR MUST READ, APPROVEAND SIGN YOUR E2 BEFORE YOU SUBMIT IT TO BE REVIEWED.