October 2022
Updates within the Office of Research Ethics Compliance:
Book a Meeting Feature
As of October 27, 2022, we will be launching the ‘Book a Meeting’ feature on our Ethics websites.
Use this feature if you wish to schedule a brief virtual meeting with Ethics Office staff regarding your ethics application or if you have questions related to the ethics review process at Queen’s University. Before you book a meeting, refer to the FAQs and/or associated ethics policies and guidelines posted on our websites: Ethics page – GREB – HSREB.
Seeking Candidates for GREB Chair
The Vice Principal Research portfolio is seeking internal applications for the position of General Research Ethics Board (GREB) Chair.
The Chair is responsible for ensuring that the GREB abides by all applicable regulations, guidelines and policies governing human participant research in the areas of Social Sciences, Humanities and Engineering. The GREB Chair works closely with GREB members and Ethics Office staff to review, propose modifications to, approve, reject, suspend or terminate any proposed or ongoing human participant research. The Chair ensures integrity and confidentiality in the ethics review process.
This application process has closed
The application deadline is November 4, 2022. Direct any questions to Kelly Blair-Matuk at Kelly.blair-matuk@queensu.ca.
TRAQ Study Team Processing Changes
As of October 13, 2022, the Ethics Office will no longer be issuing emails when changes are made to study team members, with the exception of changes to the Principal Investigator.
Moving forward, when your Change to Project Team Event Form has been processed, we will add a comment in the “Note(s)” of the Change to Project Team Event comment box to indicate that this update to the study team has been processed. Additionally, new project team members requiring TRAQ access, and that have a TRAQ profile, will be added to the study team in TRAQ and copied on all future correspondence. If new team members do not require access to TRAQ, please note this in the event form.
Processing time for study team changes is three business days.
If you require a change to the Principal Investigator, you must communicate this via submission of an amendment form and include any updated study materials (e.g., LOI/CF), in addition to a CV for credentialing purposes.
New Guidelines - Use of Draws as Incentives in Studies Involving Human Research Participants
New guidelines for the ‘Use of Draws as Incentives in Studies Involving Human Research Participants’ are currently in development. If you will be conducting a draw to provide incentives to research participants (e.g., Complete this survey to be entered into a draw to win a $50 gift card to Tim Hortons) there are some criteria that need to be followed to be compliant with the Criminal Code and the Competition Act. Once this document has been finalized, there will be associated guidelines posted on GREB and HSREBs websites. Additionally, new statements for draws will be included in the (LOI/CF) Checklists.
Always go to the Ethics websites for the most up to date versions of the LOI/CF Checklists.
GREB LOI-CF Checklist Updates
GREB recently updated the GREB LOI/CF Checklist to make the following statement mandatory:
- “This study has been reviewed for ethical compliance by the Queen’s University General Research Ethics Board (GREB).”