<iframe src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-MF263BM" height="0" width="0"> Skip to main contentSkip to main navigationSkip to footer content

Research Ethics and Procedures

Research Compliance and Resources

Contact Us

Applied Research
General Inquiries
 appliedresearch@lakelandcollege.ca
 

Lakeland College recognizes that college employees and students will engage in research activities.

To be in compliance with legislative and funding agency regulations, the college has established standards and procedures that ensure the integrity and accountability of any research conducted at Lakeland College.

Research is any type of inquiry involving staff or students. Including:

  • whether they are acting as researchers or participants in the research process
  • whether the research is conducted in person or by some other means (mail, telephone, or computer link),
  • when it involves the review of records not normally available to the public.

Before we undertake any research, we get an ethical clearance. This ensures we handle the research, the research subject(s), and resulting data with the highest quality standards.

We use third party approval of our research protocols to ensure our research methods are thorough and limit liability. At Lakeland, we use Red Deer College's research ethical standards.

Lakeland has an agreement with Red Deer Polytechnic to use its research ethics board. Find the forms you need to start a research project on the research ethics board application and process reporting page.

Research involving the following subjects or materials must comply with Lakeland College’s Procedures. This includes research involving:
  • human subjects
  • animal subjects
  • biohazardous or radioactive material

Research activities that require environmental assessments or occur in the North are also required to comply with specialized permits.

The research investigator is expected to comply with the principles of responsible conduct of research:

  1. To conduct research as capably as their knowledge permits.
  2. To fully protect the welfare, dignity, and rights of research participants.
  3. To obtain ethical approval for all research done by or using college staff or students.

Human research (research involving humans) refers to any project that involves the collection of specimens, data, or information from persons through intervention or otherwise. Included are procedures that have a low degree of invasiveness such as, surveys, interviews, naturalistic observations, exercise or psychometric testing, examination of patient records, as well as more invasive procedures, such as blood sampling and administration of a substance. This also includes projects and procedures that may be defined as minimal risk.

Minimal risk means that the risks of harm anticipated in the proposed research are not greater or more likely than those ordinarily encountered in life, including those encountered during the performance of routine physical or psychological examinations or tests.

Lakeland College is committed to ensure that research activities involving human subjects meet all ethical standards and policies. A key purpose is to ensure that the rights of human subjects participating in research projects conducted in the name of the College are respected and that such research is conducted ethically. Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans describes the principles that must guide research involving human subjects.

Specifically:

  • Respect for human dignity - This cardinal principle of research protects the multiple interests of the person from bodily to psychological to cultural integrity. This principle forms the basis of the ethical obligations in research involving human subjects.
  • Respect for free and informed consent - Individuals are generally presumed to have the capacity and the right to make free and informed decisions. This principle translates in practice into the dialogue, process, rights, duties and requirements for free and informed consent by the research participant.
  • Respect for vulnerable persons - Vulnerable persons, including children and institutionalized persons, are entitled to special protection against exploitation, discrimination or abuse. Special procedures may be required to protect these persons.
  • Respect for privacy and confidentiality - This standard protects the access, control and dissemination of personal information and materials. This principle is fundamental to the principle of respect for human dignity.
  • Respect for justice and inclusiveness - Justice means fairness and equity. The ethics review process must have fair methods, standards and procedures. Justice also balances benefits and potential harms and protects vulnerable segments of the population.
  • Balancing harms and benefits - The analysis and balance of harms and benefits are critical to the ethics of research involving human subjects. Foreseeable harms should not outweigh anticipated benefits. The balance must respect human dignity and impose strict ethical obligations on the validity, design, and conduct of research.
  • Minimizing harm - It is the duty of those conducting research involving human subjects to avoid, prevent, or minimize harm to others. Research participants must be fully aware of any potential for harm at any stage of the research.
  • Maximizing benefit - This principle imposes a duty to benefit the participants, and to maximize benefit to society as a whole.

Lakeland College currently doesn't have its own research ethics board to review human research ethics. We have a Memorandum of Understanding with Red Deer Polytechnic to access their research ethics board.

Forms and instructions for research ethics submission are available on RDP’s research ethics board web pages.

Submit completed forms to Lakeland College’s Applied Research team for review. If you need help, please contact us before you submit the form to Red Deer Polytechnic.

Research involving animals is governed by college procedure 4.58 Care of Animals Under College Control.

Research involving animals can't proceed until the research protocol has been approved by the College’s Animal Care Committee. Research protocols follow Canada Council on Animal Care (CCAC) guidelines.

For more information, contact our Animal Care Coordinator:

Tina Moir
Email
Call 780 853 8814

Lakeland College endorses the Tri-Agency Statement on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI).

The 3 agencies involved are Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

The charter is part of a program called Dimensions. Its goal is "foster transformational change within the research community at Canadian post-secondary institutions by identifying and eliminating obstacles and inequities".

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council are committed to excellence in research and research training. Achieving a more equitable, diverse and inclusive Canadian research enterprise is essential to creating the excellent, innovative and impactful research necessary to advance knowledge and understanding, and to respond to local, national and global challenges.

With these goals in mind, the agencies are committed to:

  • supporting equitable access to funding opportunities for all researchers and trainees
  • promoting the integration of equity, diversity and inclusion-related considerations in research design and practices
  • increasing equitable and inclusive participation in the research system, including on research teams
  • collecting the data and conducting the analyses needed to include equity, diversity and inclusion considerations in decision-making

Through these means the agencies will work with those involved in the research system to develop the inclusive culture needed for research excellence and to achieve outcomes that are rigorous, relevant and accessible to diverse populations.