Ethics Application for University of West London Research

This article provides information about the Ethics Form and Data Management and Storage Form that needs to be completed before starting the data collection exercise for a research project at University of West London. It also includes a sample research project on the ethical and strategical issues faced by John Lewis during the pandemic, along with the research design, analysis, and data management and storage statement.

Secondary Data collection Only
University of West London Research Ethics
You are required to complete an ethics application BEFORE you
embark on the data collection exercise of the research project
Please complete all the following sections:
- Section A: Ethics Form
- Section B: Data management and storage form

RESEARCH ETHICS AND INTEGRITY
RISK ASSESSMENT FORM
Section A: FORM A
For all Undergraduate/Postgraduate Dissertations and Research
Projects
Please fill in this form, then SAVE IT AS A PDF and submit as instructed by your supervisor
with your project proposal
Your name: (first) ……………………… (last) ………………………
Student number: …………… Your email address: ……………@student.uwl.ac.uk

PROJECT DESCRIPTON
Please answer the following questions:
1. Do you intend to involve human participants in the conduct of your research?
If no, please skip questions 2 & 3.
☐ Yes ☐No
2. Does your research involve vulnerable adults or under-18s?
☐ Yes ☐No
3. Could your research potentially expose you, anyone assisting you, or
participants to emotional harm?
☐ Yes ☐No
4. Will your research involve travelling to geo-politically unstable
regions/countries (e.g. areas affected by war, civil unrest, natural disasters, or
listed as unadvisable to travel by the UK government?
☐ Yes ☐No
5. Will your research involve access to security-sensitive material? If yes, you
must include a data management statement.
☐ Yes ☐No
This proposal must be completed with the assistance of your supervisor. You
can change the size of the boxes (below) by typing or deleting as necessary.
It is very important to convey with clarity:
• Your research questions/the problem/the theme or topic you are investigating
(what you are proposing to do and to find out or to create)
• The methodology or technical approach (for projects comprising in whole or
in part the creation of an artefact) you will adopt – methods, number of
participants, who the participants (if any) will be, survey instruments used
technology and equipment employed etc.; and what questions you are
planning to ask your respondents (if applicable); how you will deal with
technical challenges.
Title of project ____Ethical and strategical issues faced by John Lewis during the pandemic
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________________________________________________________________________
Name of researcher(s)
_____________________________________Email:[e-mail],J,.ac.uk
Name of supervisor _____________________________Date:________________________
WHERE APPROPRIATE TO YOUR CHOSEN TOPIC/RESEARCH: YES NO N/A
1 Will you describe in writing the main procedures to participants in
advance, so that they are informed about what to expect? A copy of
this must be attached to this application
✓
2 Will you tell participants that their participation is voluntary? ✓
3 Will you obtain written consent for participation and include within this
that they have a right to withdraw at any point? A copy of this must be
attached to this application
✓
4 If the research is observational, will you ask participants for their
consent to being observed?
✓
5 With questionnaires, will you give participants the option of omitting
questions they do not want to answer?
✓
6 Will you tell participants that their data will be treated with full
confidentiality and that, if published, it will not be identifiable as
theirs? This should be evidenced in the consent form and with a
signed copy of UWL’s data management form, attached to this
application.
✓
7 Will you debrief participants at the end of their participation (i.e. give
them a brief explanation of the study)? A copy of this must be
attached to this application
✓
If you have ticked No to any of Q1-7, but have ticked box A overleaf, please give an
explanation on a separate sheet.
[Note: N/A = not applicable]
YES NO N/A
8 Will your project involve deliberately misleading participants in any
way?
✓
9 Is there any realistic risk of any participants experiencing either
physical or psychological distress or discomfort? If Yes, give details
on a separate sheet and state what you will tell them to do if they
should experience any problems (e.g. who they can contact for help).
✓

If you have ticked Yes to 8 or 9, you should normally tick box B overleaf; if not, please
give a full explanation on a separate sheet
YES NO N/A
10 Does your project involve work with animals? If yes, please tick
box B overleaf.
✓
11 Do participants fall into any of
the following vulnerable
groups? If they do, please and
tick box B overleaf.
Note that you may also need
to obtain satisfactory DBS
clearance (or equivalent for
overseas students).
Schoolchildren (under 18 years of
age)
✓
People with learning or
communication difficulties
✓
Patients ✓
People in custody ✓
People engaged in illegal
activities (e.g. drug-taking)
✓
Any other groups who could be
reasonably argued as
representing any form of
vulnerability – please specify
✓
12 Will you be accessing materials which may be considered security-
sensitive under the Counter Terrorism Act (2015)?
✓
There is an obligation on the researcher to bring to the attention of the School Ethics Panel any
issues with ethical implications not clearly covered by the above checklist.
PLEASE TICK EITHER BOX A OR BOX B BELOW AND PROVIDE THE DETAILS REQUIRED
IN SUPPORT OF YOUR APPLICATION. THEN SIGN THE FORM.
Please tick
A. I consider that this project has no significant ethical implications to be brought
before the School Ethics Panel.
✓
B. I consider that this project may have ethical implications that should be brought
before the School Ethics Panel, and/or it will be carried out with children or other
vulnerable populations.
I have received guidance on ethical research practices relevant to my subject as part of
my preparation for this module.
Signed ___________________________ Print Name ______________________ Date
_______________
(UG Researcher(s))
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Signed ___________________________ Print Name ______________________ Date
_______________
(Supervisor)

PART 2
SPECIFICATIONS OF PROJECT
Please answer the following question:
1. Do you intend to use only secondary data in the conduct of your research?
☐ Yes ☐No
Introduction to the research
Background to research topic area (with references where applicable). 200 words approx.
Include Aims and Hypothesis, Research Question(s) of the dissertation/project.
Research Title: Ethical and strategical issues faced by John Lewis during the
pandemic
INTRODUCTION
The outbreak of COVID-19 is one of the toughest situation that has faced by everyone
around the world. There are many companies or organisations that have to face sudden
shut down of their operations because of restrictions imposed by government of every
country around the globe. Companies have to face strategical and ethical issues in the
organisation due to COVID-19 (Chofreh and et. al., 2020). Strategical issues may include:
organisational change, resource limitations etc. These issues were majorly faced by
companies as they were unable to work in their fuller efficiency and effectiveness. For the
current research project, John Lewis is the chosen organisation as it has to face many
challenges and issues due to COVID-19 (Lovari, D'Ambrosi and Bowen, 2020).
Research Aim: To discern ethical and strategical issues faced by organisation due to
outbreak of pandemic COVID-19. A study on John Lewis
Research Objectives:
To identify strategical and ethical issues occurred due to the outbreak of global
pandemic COVID-19 by John Lewis
To determine the impact of strategical and ethical issues over operations and
functionality of John Lewis
To highlight the ways that could help John Lewis to mitigate the impact of ethical and
strategic issues.
Research Questions:
What are the strategical and ethical issues occurred due to the outbreak of global
pandemic COVID-19 by John Lewis?
What is the impact of strategic and ethical issues over operations and functionality of
John Lewis?
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What are the ways that could help John Lewis to mitigate the impact of ethical and
strategic issues?
Method
Outline all methodological issues - e.g. Design, participants, questionnaires, tests,
method of data collection. Who are you working with? How? What Measures? What
interventions/manipulations? What controls? If your research entails exclusively the
consultation of published documents, books, articles or other work in the public domain
please state this under the heading ‘materials’.
Research design
Research design refers to the process in research methodology that holds great
importance in conducting research. Research design is all methodologies that are
necessary to gather and analyse relevant and reliable information. Research approach,
research philosophy, research strategy, data collection and research choice. These methods
are necessary to carry out relevant data that could help in attaining objectives in
qualitative way.
Participants (where applicable)
The whole research is dependent upon secondary data collection so there is no requirement of
choosing participants.
Materials (to include locations and resources)
As the whole research project is dependent upon secondary so investigator would select
different types of secondary sources like books, articles, journals, publications,
newspapers, magazines, websites etc. These sources are great to gather secondary
information in appropriate and systematic manner.
Analysis
CLEARLY describe the method of analysis you are going to use. Is it qualitative or
quantitative?
The current research would be based upon secondary and qualitative information so
investigator would be using thematic analysis. Thematic analysis is great for analysing
relevancy and reliability of secondary data that is present in text format.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Chofreh and et. al., 2020. Covid-19 shock: Development of strategic management
framework for global energy. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, p.110643.
Lovari, A., D'Ambrosi, L. and Bowen, S.A., 2020. Re-connecting voices. The (new)
strategic role of public sector communication after the Covid-19 crisis. Partecipazione e
Conflitto. 13(2). pp.970-989.
Boaden and et. al., 2020. Recovering from COVID-19: The key issues. Journal of Safety
Science and Resilience. 1(2). p.67.
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Section B: RESEARCH ETHICS AND INTEGRITY
DATA MANAGEMENT AND STORAGE STATEMENT
All applicants should familiarise themselves with the Data Protection Act
1998, and adhere to its principles in all aspects of their research:
http://www.uwl.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Departments/About-us/Web/PDF/
policies/policy-on-data-protection.pdf
Research data covers a broad range of types of information (see examples
below), and digital data can be structured and stored in a variety of file
formats.
EXAMPLES OF RESEARCH DATA
Some examples of research data:
Documents (text, Word), spreadsheets
Laboratory notebooks, field notebooks, diaries
Questionnaires, transcripts, codebooks
Audiotapes, videotapes
Photographs, films
Test responses
Slides, artefacts, specimens, samples
Collection of digital objects acquired and generated during the process of
research
Database contents (video, audio, text, images)
Models, algorithms, scripts
Contents of an application (input, output, logfiles for analysis software,
simulation software, schemas)
Methodologies and workflows
Standard operating procedures and protocols

As a student or member of staff undertaking a research project, I
understand that I am responsible for the following:
 The security and confidentiality of all data collected
 Mitigating all risks to anonymity, privacy and confidentiality posed
by all kinds of personal information storage, processing, including
computer and paper files, e-mail records, audio and video files, and
any information that directly identifies an individual. It is
recommended that data be anonymised at the point of collection.
I will ensure that:
 Data and codes and all identifying information will be kept in
separate locked filing cabinets/files and working files will contain no
identifying information, and will only be accessed by one or two
persons
 All audiotapes will be transcribed using codes or pseudonyms for
identification of individuals and destroyed upon completion of the
research project
 Access to computer files will be available by password only
 Research data will be stored for up to 5 years after the end of the
project, after which they should be disposed of safely.
Name:
Application ID:
Project title:
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