Getting help from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ethics Advisors

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Ethics Advisors are academic employees of James Cook University who review ethics applications involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in accordance with National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines Values and Ethics: Guidelines for Ethical Conduct in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research, 2003 and the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research, 2007.

The Advisor can offer advice on a draft of your application in relation to these guidelines and assist you to understand what is required before your application is submitted to the Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) for review. The Advisor provides a recommendation to the HREC on the application. Advisors are also asked to provide advice to the HREC on ethical issues in relation to research conducted with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ethics Advisors have the usual academic responsibilities including teaching, research activities and other commitments that may also involve periods of time away from the the university. To ensure your application is processed efficiently please follow the guidelines below.

Review Process for your Application

1. Your application must be submitted to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Ethics Advisors by the closing date to Advisors for the HREC meeting that you wish your application to be submitted. Any application not received by the closing date to Advisors will not be reviewed and held over until the next closing date, for example, if you have missed the closing date for Advisors for the February meeting your application will not be reviewed until the Advisor closing date for the March meeting.

2. When received by the closing date, the Advisor will review your application and provide feedback to you on any required changes or confirm that the application is ready to be submitted to the HREC.

3. If changes have to be made to the application, it is best to attend to this quickly to ensure your application is ready in time for submission to the HREC meeting.

4. Once you have made the required changes to your application, you must forward the application back to the Advisor for a final review and sign off. It is best to either highlight or track changes in the application and include the Advisor’s original feedback in the email back to the Advisor. (This way the Advisor can easily see that you have made all the required changes.)

5. Please note that if you have not made all the changes requested by the Advisor, the application will be sent back to you for further changes and it will have to be re-reviewed by the Advisor. This will hold up the processing of your application and you may miss the closing date for submission to the Research Office for the HREC meeting.