The WU Ethics Board provides advice and reviews on the ethical standards compliance of research projects that involve the collection or use of data from/about human beings. This includes experimental studies, surveys, questionnaires, interviews, (covert) observation, private text analysis, secondary/existing datasets, qualitative visual or multimodal data, etc., but does not include theoretical research, aggregated data, or data not collected from humans, or other research ethics questions.
In order to keep the number of reviews at a manageable level, the WU Ethics Board generally does not conduct reviews of Bachelor or Master theses. Assessment of compliance with ethical standards of such projects is left to the respective supervisor.
Otherwise, ethics review by the WU Ethics Board is not limited to any disciplines or methods.
In its composition, the WU Ethics Board aims to represent (experience in) different disciplines and methods across WU.
In their deliberations and decisions, the members of the WU Ethics Board are impartial, independent, and free from any consequences. Any conflict-of-interest should be declared and recorded.
The WU Ethics Board provides an assessment of risks and benefits based only on the information provided by the researcher at the time of the review. The ultimate responsibility for the ethical compliance of his/her research remains fully with the researcher.
The basic ethical consideration of research projects that involve human beings is the balance between the expected benefits of a study and the predictable risks and burdens to human research subjects which the study imposes on them (but also on researchers and their staff).
The aim of the WU Ethics Board is to provide reviews of research projects as fast and frictionless as possible, in order not to unreasonably delay research projects. In revision requests, researchers should receive detailed instructions on information to be provided to enable the Board to finalize review of the project. The Board establishes procedures such as “review exemptions” or “fast track” in order to expedite the review process while maintaining high ethical standards.
Ethics review by the WU Ethics Board is not compulsory. Researchers initiate the review process.
All ethics applications are treated in confidence and in accordance with privacy regulations.
The denial of an ethics approval by the WU Ethics Board must not have any implications on application or promotion processes and must not be the basis for any other, in particular employment-related, consequences.
In addition to reviews, the WU Ethics Board may advise researchers on decisions with respect to ethical dimensions of research projects.
The establishment of the WU Ethics Board and the ethics review process at WU aims to heighten the importance of ethically responsible research and scientific integrity at WU.
For questions please contact ethikbeirat@wu.ac.at.
