ETHICS AND PEER REVIEW

The academic institution to which the researcher is affiliated will require an ethics review for all research projects, including those that relate to data held at Population Data BC. Projects will generally also require external peer review prior to approval. See the Data Access Request (DAR) for more information.

The Data Steward(s) prefer applications with proof of peer review, an external scholarly review by experts in the appropriate field, such as a grant funding agency peer review committee. If the project has been peer reviewed, researchers should include:

• the project description used for the peer review
• written comments issued by the reviewer
• a copy of the official funding/grant letter.

Ethics
Ethics Research Boards (ERB) are typically multidisciplinary, independent boards that review research projects developed within their institution to insure that ethical principles are observed. All DARs must contain either:

• a current ethics approval certificate and a complete copy of the application submitted to Ethics Research Board (ERB); or
• a copy of an official waiver issued by an ERB; or
• a complete copy of the application submitted to the review committee, complete with any conditional or interim comments; or
• an explanation for why the project has not been submitted for review.

The ethics review must be carried out by a university ethics committee or a government funding agency, such as Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), or the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

The Ministry does not accept ethics reviews by for-profit ethics committees.

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