Dear Queen’s Faculty, Staff, Students, and Community members,
On behalf of the Queen’s General Research Ethics Board (GREB) and the Research Ethics Office (REO), I would like to warmly welcome you to research ethics. Our volunteer board members and REO team are committed to upholding the highest standards of research ethics which follow evolving provincial, national, and international guidelines (i.e., the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans) and seeking to proactively advance research ethics practices at Queen’s University to encourage and promote excellence in research and scholarship. To these ends, our vision for the future of research ethics at Queen’s is built around three key pillars.
First, we are committed to promoting adherence to the highest standards of research integrity. At Queen’s, as at other Canadian Universities, the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS2) is the prevailing Canadian standard for ethical research conduct. TCPS2 is the foundation for our operational and guidance documents, which include the Operational Policy Framework, and the evaluation criteria and requirements for informed consent. Where applicable, we also consider relevant provincial, federal, and international laws and regulations. While we believe these standards form a strong set of foundational principles for the ethical conduct of research, we, as a board, are committed to promoting and encouraging going beyond basic adherence to these frameworks. To that end, we will promote the broader spirit of research integrity throughout the research process, from choosing a topic to interactions with human participants, from analysis to communicating research findings and their implications. As a research ethics team, we are committed to ensuring that we maintain the highest standards of transparency and public accountability for the procedures and activities of our research ethics process and promoting the same in the conduct of research at Queen’s University.
Second, we are committed to fostering a collaborative partnership with members of the Queen’s research community. GREB and the REO are committed to ongoing review of our procedures, protocols, systems, guidance documentation, and support resources to ensure that we are working to facilitate the research process at Queen’s. In the coming months and years, we will strive to continuously update and improve our support resources, website, training, and education modules to provide the level of support that our research community requires, when they require it. As part of this commitment to collaboration and partnership, we encourage members of the research community to connect with GREB leadership and the REO team with suggestions, comments, concerns, or feedback regarding our processes. We further encourage members of the community to consider being part of the research ethics process at Queen’s, either by becoming volunteer board members or contributing in other ways to ensure that we uphold the high standards set forth under the first pillar.
Finally, connected to the previous two pillars, we are committed to taking a proactive rather than reactive approach to advancing in the research ethics process at Queen’s University. While we believe it is important to maintain a focus on innovation with respect to improving existing processes, we are also committed to keeping our collective perspective focused on emerging research ethics opportunities and challenges that are likely to impact our research community. As such, we recognize and accept the responsibility to ensure that we are proactively seeking ways to address these emerging concerns in ways that allow us to keep Queen’s University at the forefront of excellence in research and scholarship.
These are our commitments to the Queen’s research and external communities, and we encourage you to feel free to engage with us as we explore and build upon the future of research ethics at Queen’s University.
Sincerely,
Jacob Brower, PhD
Associate Professor and Distinguished Faculty Teaching Fellow of Marketing Chair of Queen’s University General Research Ethics Board (GREB)