Analyzing Ethical Considerations in Dissertation Research Projects

This document presents a student's ethical opinion form completed for a dissertation project. The form addresses key ethical considerations, including the objectives of the research, data collection methods (specifically, primary data through interviews), sample populations, informed consent procedures, data storage and security measures, and potential risks to participants and the researcher. The student outlines steps to ensure anonymity, prevent unauthorized access to data, and safeguard the privacy of respondents. The project focuses on stakeholder approach and project management, and the student details how data will be collected, stored, and protected in compliance with data protection regulations. The form also addresses potential risks and ensures adherence to ethical guidelines for research involving human subjects, emphasizing the importance of ethical approval before commencing any research activities. The project aims to identify factors determining project success and stakeholder management areas.

GUIDANCE NOTES v1.1.to BAL taught students ethical opinion form v4.3: 2018.
GUIDANCE NOTES FOR STUDENTS
Ethical opinion form for Faculty of Business and Law taught
undergraduate and postgraduate dissertation / project students
(except MRes)
Ethics approval must be gained before any research is undertaken or any potential participants
are recruited.
SECTION 1 – THE PROCESS
1. Fill in the twenty questions on the ethics form, using these Guidance Notes and the
‘Research ethics – issues to consider’ guide (also included as an appendix to these
Guidance Notes) to help you. Please be aware that we have turned off automatically
numbered lists in the ethics form, in order to try to prevent question numbers from going
out of sync as you fill it in.
2. If you are not collecting primary data or data that are identifiable with individuals, then
you still need to complete an ethics form, but you should answer Qs 1-4, then Q11 and as
many of the questions between Qs 12-20 as are relevant in your case.
3. See your supervisor for an initial review of your form and any related documentation,
such as draft participant information sheets, invitation letters, consent forms, interview
schedules / questionnaires, etc. You can find the latest versions of template documents
for participants that you can adapt at www.port.ac.uk/research/ethics. Once happy that
your documentation is capable of being reviewed, the usual procedure is that your
supervisor will pass your documentation on to an independent reviewer to decide
whether ethical approval can be supported. (If specifically previously agreed by the
University, your supervisor may be able to approve your application him/herself.) Please
allow enough time for the ethical review process and assume that you are likely to be
asked to make some amendments. Make any amendments that are suggested as
conditions of being able to grant a favourable ethical opinion, and re-send the amended
documentation, via your supervisor.
4. If your project concerns the National Health Service (NHS) or Ministry of Defence (MoD),
then you must discuss the application with your supervisor before any application to
NRES (the NHS research ethics body) or MODREC (the MoD research ethics body), in
order to determine whether ethical review by an external body will be needed and
whether it is feasible or not to go through this process in the time available to you. You
can check whether your project falls under the NHS or MoD definitions of ‘research’ that
normally requires external ethical review by using the ‘Decision Tools’ section at the
bottom of the following webpage: https://www.hra.nhs.uk/planning-and-improving-
research/research-planning/access-study-support-advice-services/
5. If you are unable to gain support for ethical approval from your supervisor and the peer
reviewer of your ethics form, then you have a right of appeal via your supervisor to the
Faculty Ethics Committee on your behalf. Your supervisor should send an email, with your
completed form, any related documentation, and any relevant correspondence, attached
as one document, to the BAL Faculty Ethics Administrator.
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GUIDANCE NOTES v1.1.to BAL taught students ethical opinion form v4.3: 2018.
6. A favourable ethical opinion means that, as long as you conduct the study in the way that
has been agreed, then you have ethical approval. If you subsequently do something other
than what has been agreed, then you no longer have ethical approval and would face the
appropriate penalty. So, if there are changes to the project that affect the ethics approval,
you must gain consent once more from your supervisor and the peer reviewer before you
do the work. Do this by using the amendments form. Again, you must not attempt to
recruit any potential participants or collect any data relevant to the subject matter of your
amendment until it has been formally approved.
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GUIDANCE NOTES v1.1.to BAL taught students ethical opinion form v4.3: 2018.
SECTION TWO: FILLING IN THE FORM
Guidance is in Times Roman bold font.
1. What are the objectives of the dissertation / research project?
The prime determinations of this research project are listed as followings:
 Identification of the factors for determining the success of the project.
 Identification of the areas of stakeholder management.
2. Does the research involve NHS patients, resources or staff? YES / NO (please delete as
applicable).
No, this research does not involve NHS patients, staffs or any other human resources
associated with that association.
3. Does the research involve MoD staff?
No, this research project does not involve any of the staff from MoD.
4. Do you intend to collect primary data from human subjects or data that are identifiable
with individuals?
The data collection procedure which was selected in this research project is primary data
collection method. A personal interview will be conducted with 5 experienced personnel who
has years of experience working in complex projects which involves diverse categories of
stakeholders whereas secondary data collection will involve the data collected from secondary
sources like Google Scholar.
5. How will the primary data contribute to the objectives of the dissertation / research
project?
The objectives of this research will be addressed in an organised manner using the personal
interview which is chosen as the primary data collection method for this research purpose.
The prime objectives of this research which can be addressed using this primary data collection
procedure are as followings:
 Identification of factors to determine the success of the project.
 Identification of the areas of stakeholder engagement for determining the success of the
project.
6. What is/are the survey population(s)?
The survey population of this research project is 5. Each of the samples which was considered
in this research proposal is from diverse fields.
Sample Background
J. Terry He is from an experienced IT professional who has years of experience
working in complex project management assignments.
E. Nova Elizabeth is a junior scientist who was involved in lots of complicated projects
which involved lots of constraints like time and resource management.
J. Roy Jason Roy work in a SME as a project manager. He understands the
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GUIDANCE NOTES v1.1.to BAL taught students ethical opinion form v4.3: 2018.
significance of this project more than the other samples.
S. McMahon She is the general manager of an IT organization who has external
stakeholders and agents all around the world. She works only on out sourced
projects.
D. Murray Senior operational manager of a warehouse, having the experience to work
with diverse categories of stakeholders.
7. a) How big is the sample for each of the survey populations and b) how was this sample
arrived at? (Please answer both parts of this question.)
This research project considered the opinion of 5 sample, each of them are from diverse field
but have years of experience to deal with adverse business situations like unavailability of
human resources or significance of stakeholder management.
These samples were collected using telephonic conversations as there were lot of difficulties to
arrange a meeting for each one of them.
The sampling method which was chosen after the data collection method is probabilistic
sampling method. This method was chosen so that ambiguity of the collected data is minimized
to a significant extent. Diverse perspectives can also be obtained from each of the chosen
samples.
8. How will respondents be a) identified and b) recruited?
Identification of these samples was one of the biggest challenges regarding the data collection
procedure of this project. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram was thoroughly
studied as there are lots of social media platforms which discusses about the involvement of
each of the stakeholders of a business as it is very much required for the successful completion
of the project. Thus, samples were identified from social media platforms.
There were two prime criteria’s which were set regarding the selection of the sample. Having a
minimum of 57 years of experience will be the prime priority and the other eligibility criteria is
that each one of them must be having at least 2 years’ experience as a project or operational
manager in their respective fields.
9. What steps are proposed to ensure that the requirements of informed consent will be
met for those taking part in the research? If an Information Sheet for participants is to be
used, please attach it to this form. If not, please explain how you will be able to
demonstrate that informed consent has been gained from participants.
Unnecessary inconvenience was avoided during the data collection procedure as the telephonic
interview was conducted for two. Call records were analysed in an organized manner before
moving on to the next question.
The reliability of the collected data is maintained as each of the participants was allowed to
speak as long as they want so that each minute details gets highlighted in this data
collection procedure.
10. How will data be collected from each of the sample groups?
Personal interview will be considered as the data collection procedure of this project as the
reliability of the persona data is more than secondary data collection procedure.
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GUIDANCE NOTES v1.1.to BAL taught students ethical opinion form v4.3: 2018.
Secondary data of this project will be selected from secondary sources like Google Scholar
which is a very reliable data source.
11. a) How will data be stored and b) what will happen to the data at the end of the
research?
Each of the collected data will be stored in the cloud servers as it can safeguard the data from
diverse categories of threats like data alteration.
The data will be stored in the cloud servers until the final phase of the project, Data Protection
Act of 2018 will be considered in order to main the integrity of the collected data.
Consent sheets from the university is the only way to get data after the completion of this
research project as the credentials of the cloud server will be shared with each of concerned
supervisors of the university.
12. What measures will be taken to prevent unauthorised persons gaining access to the data,
and especially to data that may be attributed to identifiable individuals?
The data which will be stored in the cloud servers will be encrypted and only the concerned
supervisors of this project will be having the decryption keys which will be very much useful to
maintain the reliability of the collected data.
13. What steps are proposed to safeguard the anonymity of the respondents?
Personal identifiers will be removed from each of the sheets which will be prepared after
analysing the data from each of the samples. Personal details of the participants will not be
exposed under any given circumstances which will ensure the security of both the data and the
participants.
Privacy of the data will be maintained under any given circumstances and it will be done from
each phase of the data collection procedure.
Participants shall be given a separate form where they can fill up their personal details and
previous experiences which will be very much significant to protect their response to each of the
questions associate with this topic.
Qualitative approach will be considered during the data collection procedure which will help to
safeguard the privacy of the participants.
Secondary data can be secured as the data source is from peer reviewed articles.
14. Are there any risks (physical or other, including reputational) to respondents that may
result from taking part in this research?
Getting similar response to any particular question from more than one participant can have an
undesirable impact on the findings of this research paper. There are no other risks associated
with this research project.
15. Are there any risks (physical or other, including reputational) to the researcher or to the
University that may result from conducting this research?
There are no reputational r physical risks associated with this research project.
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GUIDANCE NOTES v1.1.to BAL taught students ethical opinion form v4.3: 2018.
16. Will any data be obtained from a company or other organisation?
Data will be collected from employees of commercial establishments but on their non-working
days. Personal spaces will be used to get the data.
Secondary data will be collected from secondary sources like Google Scholar.
17. What steps are proposed to ensure that the requirements of informed consent will be
met for any organisation in which data will be gathered? How will confidentiality be
assured for the organisation?
Data will be gathered during the non-working days for each of the employers who work
indifferent business conditions.
Confidentiality of the data will be maintained using confidential waste bins and shredders.
Control access will also be used to protect the confidentiality of the data.
18. Does the organisation have its own ethics procedure relating to the research you intend
to carry out? YES / NO (please delete as applicable).
No.
19. Will the proposed research involve any of the following (please put a √ next to ‘yes’ or
‘no’; consult your supervisor if you are unsure):
• Potentially vulnerable groups (e.g. adults unable
to consent, children)? YES NO 
• Particularly sensitive topics? YES NO 
• Access to respondents via ‘gatekeepers’? YES NO 
• Use of deception? YES NO 
• Access to confidential personal data (names,
addresses, etc)? YES NO 
• Psychological stress, anxiety etc? YES NO 
• Intrusive interventions? YES NO 
20. Are there any other ethical issues that may arise from the proposed research?
Maintaining the integrity of the data collected from each of the participants is the only
ethical considerations of this research project. Participants will not be forced to answer any
questions which they do not want to answer.
The other ethical considerations associated with the secondary data is that reference must
be given to each of the researchers whose data are considered in this paper.
Print name Signature Date signed
Student
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GUIDANCE NOTES v1.1.to BAL taught students ethical opinion form v4.3: 2018.
I / we grant a favourable ethical opinion:
Supervisor
Peer reviewer
(unless University
has agreed that
supervisor can sign
off)
Student, supervisor and (unless the University has specifically previously agreed that the
supervisor alone can sign off) the peer reviewer should print name, sign and date in the
spaces indicated.
AMENDMENTS
If you need to make changes please ensure you have permission before recruiting any
participants and any primary data collection. If there are major changes, fill in a new form if
that will make it easier for everyone. If there are minor changes then fill in the amendments
(next page) and get them signed before the primary data collection begins.
The amendments section is for any changes to the primary research methods that you wish
to make after the original version has been approved. Any proposed amendments to what
has already been approved will need you to gain further approval from your supervisor
and the peer reviewer. Please reproduce the next page as many times as necessary if you
need to apply for more than one amendment to what has already been approved.
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GUIDANCE NOTES v1.1.to BAL taught students ethical opinion form v4.3: 2018.
CHANGES TO ETHICS PERMISSION
VERSION: ____
Please describe the nature of the change and impact on ethics:
Print name Signature Date signed
Student
I / we grant a favourable ethical opinion:
Supervisor
Peer reviewer
(unless University
has agreed that
supervisor can sign
off)
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GUIDANCE NOTES v1.1.to BAL taught students ethical opinion form v4.3: 2018.
APPENDIX: Research ethics: issues to consider
Brief guidance for taught students doing dissertations
and for their supervisors
We know time is of the essence in getting primary research underway for dissertation
students. Where human subjects and/or sensitive documentation are being used for
primary research, you can use this checklist to review aspects of the proposed research
that need considering carefully to help ensure its ethical design and conduct. Please
note:
1. This document constitutes guidance. It is not an exhaustive list of what
should be covered, especially with regard to sensitive research.
2. Unless the researcher has a favourable ethical opinion, the research is neither
sponsored nor insured by the University. Neither the student nor the supervisor
are indemnified if anything goes wrong. If in doubt about anything on this list,
students should consult their supervisor; supervisors should consult the relevant
Faculty Ethics Committee representative for additional guidance. The university’s
research ethics webpages contain much assistance.
3. For the purposes of dissertation research by taught students, the student’s
supervisor counts officially as the principal investigator.
4. An ethical opinion for MPhil/PhDs, Prof Docs and staff research has to be provided
by the Faculty Ethics Committee.
The brief ethics opinion checklist (you can tick off relevant items as you consider
them, if it helps you)
1 Have you fully completed a research proposal and an ethics form?
2 Are you proposing to use members of potentially vulnerable groups (elderly
people or under-18s, patients, vulnerable workers, victims, offenders, etc.)?1
3 Does the proposed research pose any reputational risks for UoP (e.g.
adverse media attention due to the topic or how you propose to collect data)?
4 Do you propose using covert or observational methods to collect data
(including covert collection of data on social networks)?
5 If your data collection uses social networks, are the hosts of the social
networks agreeable to this use of their sites?
6 How are you recruiting participants? Is privileged contact data being used?
Will you need the help of an organisational ‘gatekeeper’ to access potential
participants? Does the gatekeeper have the organisational authority and / or
the consent of potential participants to pass contact details on to you (if
1 If the research involves NHS patients or their relatives or carers, adults lacking the capacity to consent for
themselves or offenders within the criminal justice system, external ethical review will be necessary. You
should seek further advice.
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GUIDANCE NOTES v1.1.to BAL taught students ethical opinion form v4.3: 2018.
relevant)?
7
Do you need to write a letter to the host organisation (on headed notepaper)
that addresses all relevant ethical questions – including reputational issues
for the host – about the research and includes the university email addresses
of student, supervisor and Head of Dept.?
8
Have you completed written information for participants? Does it include any
necessary safekeeping/safeguarding information2 and the university contact
details of student and supervisor?
9 Have you provided information about anonymity, confidentiality, data
protection, data storage, etc?
1
0 Is a complaints and queries process detailed?
1
1
Have you made it clear to participants how they are giving their informed
consent to take part (e.g. a written consent form for participants, recorded
verbal consent, etc.), Have you stated if they can later withdraw their data
and, if so, how and until what point in time?
1
2
Have you detailed what any interview process will be (where, for how long,
etc.)?
1
3
Is any interview taking place in an appropriate and safe setting (for both
participant and researcher)?
1
4
Have you provided clear instructions as to how to complete any survey or
other research tool, including when questions can be skipped?
1
5
Is it clear that the research is sponsored by Portsmouth and owned by
Portsmouth and student?
1
6 Is it clear that no raw data can be seen by host organisation/s?
1
7
Is it clear that host organisations cannot use the research for human
resources or performance issues?
1
8
Have you supplied your research instrument to your supervisor for his / her
opinion? Have you avoided irrelevant, incriminating or leading questions?
1
9
Have you considered how the results will be disseminated to participants
and / or the host organisation, if relevant, e.g. summary to host organisation
etc. after successful graduation from programme?
Adapted by Faculty of Business and Law Ethics Committee, v.1.1, September 2018, from an original
document by Jane Winstone.
2 A typical example would be informing participants that should any threats to their welfare or that of others be
identified in the course of the research, it might be necessary to inform relevant authorities.
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