Ethics Application for Research

Introduction
An ethics application should be submitted for review and approval by anyone conducting
research at, or under the auspices of, the that involves human beings, animals or personal
data relating to human beings.
The completion of this form should not be seen as an end in itself but as a vehicle to ensure that
you have gone through a process of considering the ethical implications of your research in detail
and that you are able to communicate this clearly.
Please note that you should NOT begin your project or start any data collection until your
ethics application has been given final approval by your dissertation supervisorand it is
confirmed that all conditions have been met.
If you have any queries whilst completing this form, please get in contact with your dissertation
supervisor.
SECTION 1: PERSONAL DETAILS & DECLARATION
Please complete the header with your name and Department
Name:
Student number:
UR email address:
Programme of Study:
Supervisor:
STUDENT’S SIGNATURE
I confirm that this submission accords with the University Code of Conduct and that
all information supplied on this form is correct
Student’s Signature:
Please use an electronic signature or type your name
Date:
SECTION 1b: SUPERVISOR’S APPROVAL
Dissertation supervisors, please:
 scrutinise the Ethics Application and all participant-facing documentation
 suggest and check any changes which need making before your final approval
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Please tick the box to confirm that you have approved the application as ethically sound
and the participant-facing documentation as appropriate.
SUPERVISOR’S SIGNATURE
Signature:
Please use an electronic signature or type your name
Print name:
Date:
SECTION 2: PROJECT DETAILS
Title of project:
Impact of social media on the business practices of Retail Company.
(Please include name of project on participant documentation if
different)
Proposed start date (start
date of actual data
collection):
Please note that
supervisor’s approval can
take some time. Please
submit applications in a
timely manner. Reasons
should be given for late or
retrospective
submissions.
Duration:
2.1. Purpose of the proposed investigation (300 words maximum)
This section should include the material which concisely outlines the rationale for the project, i.e.
why this study needs to be done. This should be done in a way that is both accessible and
scholarly, i.e. have proper cited sources.
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The purpose of this proposed investigation is to determine positive and negative impact of social
media on the business practices of retail company. Moreover, for identifying the ways through which
negative impact of social media may be resolve. This will help researcher to accumulate information
in relation to understand the concept of social media. In addition to this, it is also helpful in
collecting data relating methods that a firm can opt for solving problems or negative effects of social
media upon its business functions and operations as well. Apart from this, respective research is
performed with assistance of primary as well as secondary methods. In addition to this, the primary
purpose of respective project on social media is that, it is considered to be one of the essential tool at
present business environment. This also assists in evaluating how business can utilise social media
that helps into their growth at targeted market area.
2.2. Outline of the project(300 words maximum)
This section should include the details of the methods i.e. what will be done and how. Please start
by giving a brief summary (one paragraph) including how many participants there are likely to be,
where the research will take place and an indication of how long participation will take for each
section (interviews, questionnaires etc.) and in total.
For this project, in about 40 participants, it is suitable as effective information can be accumulated
appropriately and also helpful in saving time. In addition to this, the questionnaires are prepared in
order to know about their responses related to given questions.
Along with this, in order to perform this research both qualitative as well as quantitative techniques
are used as this assist them to accumulate effectively reliable and accurate information in respect of
given topic that is Impact of social media on the business practices of retail company. Also, for this
project both primary and secondary methods are applied by assistance of questionnaires and also
using various sites, books, journals and many more. Along with this, primary research is performed
through collecting information for executive survey where questionnaires is being executed through
investigator to accumulate information. Also, secondary research is performed together data form
articles in published and non published way, several websites, journals and others.
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You should attach all the research instruments you are planning to use in your research, e.g.
interview questionnaire, online questionnaire template, etc. These should be checked by your
supervisor prior to Ethics application approval.
Please tick the boxes to confirm that
1) you have attached all research instruments you intend to use
2) you will notify your supervisor of any major changes
2.3. Ethical issues raised by the project and how these will be addressed(500 words
maximum)
Ethical issues raised by the project and how these will be addressed:
Points that should be considered include:
 Participants and consent
 Confidentiality and anonymity
 Right to withdrawal
 Deception
 Permissions from organisations involved
 Whether any vulnerable populations are involved (including under 18s) (also see Section 6)
This section should have some comment and not left blank.
Please refer to the Ethics Guidelines for more information.
The ethical issues raised through the project are participants and consent because various
respondents are can get hurt through some kind of questions asked through researcher. As most of
the ethical values are implicated through individual’s participants into investigation are beneficence,
mitigating, and faith into participant’s relationship. So, they should assure that not such types of
questions are involved. In respect of consent, this implied that agreement to participate is voluntary,
free from coercion as well as undue influences. For instance, researcher has to provide written
consent to all participants that all information will be provided to them and that should not be shared
to anyone.
Along with this, one of the other ethical issues is confidentiality and anonymity as researcher also
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