Abstract
The CQUniversity Australia Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) is a human ethics research committee registered under the auspices of the National Health and Medical Research Council. In 2009 an external review of CQUniversity Australia’s HREC policies and procedures recommended that a low risk research process be available to the institution’s researchers. Subsequently, in 2010 the Human Research Ethics Committee Low Risk Application Procedure came into operation. This paper examines the applications made under the Human Research Ethics Committee Low Risk Application Procedure during the course of 2010 and 2011. The paper contributes to the literature analyzing the decision-making processes of research review committees through an analysis of the quantitative data relating to the low risk research applications made and through discourse analysis of the qualitative data represented by the assessment comments of the members of the Committee.
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Acknowledgments
Both Dr Teresa Moore and Associate Professor Kristy Richardson are members of CQUniversity Human Ethics Research Review Committee.
Both authors would like to thank the CQUniversity Australia Human Research Ethics Committee Secretary, Sue Evans, for undertaking the data collection and de-identification of data processes to enable this project to proceed.
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Moore, T., Richardson, K. The Low Risk Research Ethics Application Process at CQUniversity Australia. J Acad Ethics 11, 211–230 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-013-9180-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-013-9180-0