Ethical_issues/Participant_Consent_Form/handout

From OER in Education
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Participant consent for research project The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)[1] and ABC[2] University attaches high priority to the ethical conduct of research. We therefore ask you to consider the following points before signing this form. Your signature confirms that you are happy to participate in the study. Your contribution to the research will take the form of an interview with one of our project team. This will be tape-recorded and transcribed (it will be typed up and anonymised).

The tape-recordings will be kept securely and destroyed in due course.

The transcriptions (excluding names and other identifying details) will be retained by the project team and analysed as part of the study.

We will send your own interview transcript back to you after it has been anonymised. That way, you can keep a copy of our conversation. We will also give you time to check it over. You can make changes if you want, and advise us of anything else we should do to protect your privacy.

The findings of the research will be written up as feedback for you, for policy makers and for other organisations interested in our work. The findings will be published, and they may also be used for teaching and research training. The written work may include quotations from the interviews, but individuals will never be named.About 50 people from all walks of life are taking part in this phase of the work. Your contribution is immensely valuable. However, if, at any point during the course of the project, you wish to withdraw from the study, we will respect your decision immediately.

Confirmation and consentI confirm that I have freely agreed to participate in the 'XYZ' research project. I have been briefed on what this involves and I agree to the use of the findings as described above. I understand that the material is protected by a code of professional ethics. I hereby assign the copyright in my contribution to the 'ABC University'.

Participant signature:__________________________________________________
Name:________________________________________________________________
Date:_________________________________________________________________

I confirm, for the project team, that we agree to keep the undertakings in this contract.
Researcher signature:___________________________________________________
Name:__________________________________________________________________
Date:___________________________________________________________________


  1. National research organisations also have their own codes of ethics which can be referred to.
  2. Insert the name of your university or organisation here

Cc-by-nc-sa-narrow.png Singal, N., and Jeffery, R. (2008). Qualitative Research Skills Workshop: A Facilitator's Reference Manual, http://oer.educ.cam.ac.uk/wiki/RECOUP, Cambridge: RECOUP (Research Consortium on Educational Outcomes and Poverty, http://recoup.educ.cam.ac.uk/). CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. (original page)