Who has to submit an application?

Anyone employed by James Cook University or studying at the University who intends to undertake a research or teaching project involving any form of human participation (including observation of human activity), access to personal documents or other materials, and access to databases must submit a human ethics application.

Undergraduate projects: If undergraduate students are involved in small research projects involving human participants as part of their assessment, then ethics approval must be sought. Usually the lecturer-in-charge of the subject would submit an ethics application for the course to cover this assessment requirement, or if appropriate, individual or groups of students may also apply for ethics approval.

Teaching activities: Teaching activities may require ethics approval. Teaching activities that involve physiological or psychosocial experiments, taking of tissue or blood samples, administration of any substances, any stressful activities, recording of any personal information and administration of surveys require ethics approval to be obtained.

Quality assurance activities: Activities conducted inside the University for purely quality assurance purposes (i.e. service delivery of courses) may not require ethics approval. Please email ethics@jcu.edu.au to confirm when ethics approval is necessary.