*June 26, 2024*
The UBC Behavioural Research Ethics Board (BREB) remains concerned for the health and safety of research participants. Researchers will be required to submit a Safe Research Plan for in-person research, under the following circumstances:
- Research with immune-compromised individuals
- Research taking place internationally
- Case-by-case in high-risk situations (researchers will be notified by the BREB)
The BREB expects that all researchers, including students conducting course-based research projects, will follow UBC’s Communicable Disease Prevention Framework and take precautions against infectious diseases. This includes doing health checks for themselves and their participants before engaging in research. Under all circumstances involving in-person activity, researchers should maintain vigilance and awareness of any signs of respiratory illness in themselves and participants.
The BREB also expects that researchers will accommodate participant requests for increased infectious disease protections such as the wearing of masks (see the next section). For more information, see UBC’s Communicable Disease Prevention Framework (2023).
If you no longer need to use an existing Safe Research Plan, do not delete the plan from page 9, but include a comment in your PAA cover sheet and in Box 5.6 explaining your alternative approach to ensuring participant protection. If your research is in-person and involves immune-compromised persons, use the template to complete your Safe Research Plan.
RESEARCH WITH IMMUNE-COMPROMISED POPULATIONS
The TCPS2’s principle of Justice requires that no one group or individual take on the burden of research or be unfairly excluded from research participation. The COVID-19 pandemic increased the vulnerability of those who are immune-compromised. This has created a barrier to participation in research for them and their close contacts.
Researcher duty to accommodate
Researchers have a duty to accommodate reasonable requests from participants to increase safety protocols. Accommodations may include:
- ensuring N95 masks are worn by all research personnel
- conducting interviews in well-ventilated or outdoor spaces
- using remote video conferencing in place of in person meetings
- ensuring that lab space and research equipment are cleaned between uses
The researcher should talk to participants about the level of protection needed, to make their participation possible. If you are conducting research with immune-compromised populations, you are required to submit a Safe Research Plan using the most recent template. You will need to save the template to your computer in order to fill out the fields. Once completed, attach it to page 9 of your ethics application.
The BREB recommends including information in the Risk section of the consent form about the researcher's duty to accommodate. Suggested wording: "Please tell the researcher if you require modifications to enable your participation. The researcher is committed to accommodating reasonable requests and can discuss your situation with you. Examples of reasonable changes include providing masks or improving ventilation or changing a meeting location."
RESEARCH OUTSIDE CANADA
If you are conducting research outside Canada, both faculty and students are required to submit a Safe Research Plan. The BREB will consider current circumstances in the region where the research is being undertaken. Please provide as much detail as possible about local current public health directives, vaccination rates, rates of COVID-19 or other infectious respiratory infections, and rates of hospitalizations due to COVID-19. Also describe how vaccination and mask-wearing protocols will be managed.
In the ethics application:
- Specify the locations where your research will be conducted in Section 4.2. Institutions and Sites for Study. Indicate if you are travelling to multiple sites within a country.
- Attach your Safe Research Plan to Box 9.7. You will need to save the Safe Research Plan to your computer in order to fill out the fields.
GRADUATE STUDENTS
If you are a graduate student doing in-person international research OR research with an immune-compromised population, in addition to submitting a Safe Research Plan, we recommend that you arrange for a BREB consultation before submitting your ethics application. Please email maria.valente@ubc.ca (Vancouver) or
lisa.shearer@ubc.ca (Okanagan) to arrange.
Consultations will cover:
- Vaccinations
- Masking. Researchers should wear N95 or equivalent masks during research indoors unless the ventilation is highly efficient.
- Testing for respiratory diseases prevalent in the areas where research will take place. Researchers will need to familiarize themselves with local health directives and are advised to undergo any recommended testing, even if asymptomatic, before they begin:
- travelling for extended periods on public transportation
- working with an isolated social unit or network
- conducting research indoors with a group (focus group, workshop or Circle)
- and if they show symptoms of respiratory illness.
Where advised, researchers should be immunized as recommended by health officials (see below).
Research participants should also be advised to self-screen for symptoms, before arriving at the research site.