All research or teaching conducted under the auspices of UNBC involving the use of human participants, human tissue, human stem cells or data collected on human participants must conform to the UNBC Policy and Terms of Reference on Ethics Review of Research Involving Human Participants and must have the prior approval of the UNBC REB. In Canada, all human participant research is guided by the Tri-Council Policy Statement on the Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS 2 (2022)).

Research involving human participants, either directly or indirectly, even if non-invasive to the person, must be submitted for prior approval by the REB. This includes all research involving interviews, focus groups, aptitude testing, Internet surveys, telephone polls or psychological experiments.

Classroom projects involving research by students must be submitted by the instructor for REB approval prior to the semester of the course in order to ensure review and revisions are completed for inclusion of the project in the course syllabus. Faculty members who may be in doubt as to whether REB approval is necessary, must contact the Research Ethics Officer or Chair of the REB.

External researchers must request a proportionate review of their study from the UNBC REB. Please submit a copy of your home institution's REB approval, together with a copy of the final approved application and supporting documents, complete with any revisions, by email to reb@unbc.ca. External research studies are assessed for local considerations, and a response will be sent back to the researcher, as outlined in TCPS2, Article 8.3. Once UNBC REB Approval has been obtained, the external researcher can proceed to engage with UNBC faculty, staff and students.

The UNBC Ethics Review of Research Involving Human Participants - Policy and Terms of Reference were developed with the support of the policies and terms of reference of Simon Fraser University, University of Victoria and University of British Columbia, and we thank them for their sharing of the helpful language we have used.