Under what conditions is an assessment of the ethics commission required?
- “Vulnerable” refers to persons who, at the time of the investigation, are in critical life situations and/or under increased stress, are undergoing psychotherapeutic or medical treatment and/or are totally or partially unable to protect and communicate their personal interests (e.g. persons under guardianship).
- Endangering includes, for example, mental or physical side effects of therapeutic interventions, or possible emotional stress or re-traumatization caused by participating in your study
- This could be the case, for example, through the processing, transmission of personal data and/or use of third-party software.
- If no decision has been made in regards to the publication of the study, but publication is a likely possibility, we recommend submitting an application
- If changes occur in a study that has not been reviewed by the Ethics Committee so far, please contact the Ethics Committee to clarify whether a submission is necessary
if the study participants belong to a particularly vulnerable group of people, these are groups of people who are vulnerable because of their physical, mental or psychological constitution or because of their special social situation:
- Children and adolescents
- People of all ages suffering from a somatic illness and/or a physical disability and/or mental disorder
- People with cognitive deficits or dementia
- Persons with legal adult representatives
- People in emergency or extreme situations, e.g. people currently in situations of flight
- Persons to whom custodial or legal measures restricting their freedom are applied
- Pregnant women
- Persons for whom the voluntary character of participation is questionable due to a relationship of dependence (e.g. students of the Sigmund Freud University
if the research project’s question addresses value-sensitive issues . These include, for exple:
-Gender issues
-Sexual orientation
-Religious issues
-Ethnic issues
-Political issues
-…
In case of doubt as to whether the research project deals with a value-sensitive topic, the ethics commission will provide information as to whether a review is required or at least advisable.
if a publication of the research results is planned: note that most scientific publication organs require the submission of a positive vote of an ethics committee for research work using personal data.