Access a range of internal and external research ethics guidance ordered by topic.
Research participants
Consent
- Informed Consent, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
- Ethics Guidelines: Informed Consent, Social Research Association
- Research involving human participants: Consent from research participants, Wellcome
- Medical research involving adults who cannot consent, UKRI Medical Research Council (MRC)
- The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA), NHS Health Research Authority (HRA)
Consent and participant information guidance, UKRI MRC and NHS HRA
Risk and benefit
- Risk and benefit, UKRI ESRC
- Research Ethics Guidance: Avoiding Harm, Social Research Association
- Research involving human participants: Participants' rights, interests and safety, Wellcome
- Deceptive research, British Psychological Society (BPS)
- Deception debriefing, BPS
Research with potentially vulnerable people
- Research with potentially vulnerable people, UKRI ESRC
- The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA), NHS HRA
- MRS Best Practice Guide on Research Participant Vulnerability, Market Research Society
- Dementia: Ethical Issues, Nuffield Council on Bioethics
Participant data
- Data Protection, UCL
- Practical Data Protection Guidance Notices, UCL
- Research data management, UK Data Service
- Research involving human participants, Wellcome
- Data requirements, UKRI ESRC
Research with children and young people
For guidance on research with children and young people visit our webpage on Research with children and young people.
Working with Human Tissue
- Human Tissue Biobanks, UCL
- Guidance on Human Tissue Act, UCL
- Relevant material under the Human Tissue Act 2004, Human Tissue Authority (HTA)
- Human Tissue Act: Codes of Practice, HTA
- Use of human samples in medical research, UKRI MRC
- Global bioethics, UKRI
- Research using human samples, UKRI
- Human tissue and biological samples for use in research (2014), UKRI MRC
Overseas research
- International research, UKRI ESRC
- Foreign travel advice, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
- A Global Code of Conduct for Equitable Research Partnerships, The TRUST Code
Internet-mediated research
- Ethical decision-making and internet research 2.0, Association of Internet Researchers
- Internet-mediated research, UKRI ESRC
- Ethics guidelines for Internet mediated research, BPS
- Ethics guide, Association of Internet Researchers
Nicolas Gold, Using Twitter Data in Research Guidance for Researchers and Ethics Reviewers, UCL Department of Computer Science (2021) (Word) (UCL login required)
Information/data sources
- Nicolas Gold, Ethics Issues in Custom Software and App-Based Research Experience and Data Collection. UCL Department of Computer Science (2020) (Word) (UCL login required)
- Nicolas Gold, Jens Krinke, Ethical Mining: A Case Study on MSR Mining Challenges. UCL Department of Computer Science (2020) (Word) (UCL login required)
Legal responsibilities in research
- Guidance for Researchers: Implications of GDPR and DPA 2018, UCL Data Protection Office (DPO)
- Research with Children: Guidance on Data Protection Issues, UCL DPO
- Safeguarding Policies, UCL Human Resources
General ethical guidance
- Research Ethics Guidance, UKRI ESRC
- Code of human research ethics, BPS
- Good research practice, UKRI MRC
- Ethics Series, UKRI MRC
- Guidelines on Good Research Practice, Wellcome
- NHS Health Research Authority, NHS HRA
- Do I need NHS REC approval, HRA
- Ethical guidelines for good research practice, Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and the Commonwealth
- Statement of ethics, British Society of Criminology
- COPE guidelines, Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
- Code of Research Ethics and Guidelines, International Visual Sociology Association
- Data Ethics Framework, 2018, UK Government Central Digital and Data Office
- Rigour, respect, responsibility: a universal ethical code for scientists, UK Government (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy)
- Ethics Guidelines, Social Research Association