Dear all,
Although I've personally never had to get a research application agreed by
an ethics committee, it is clear that more and more would-be BNIM
researchers are having to grapple with them and overcome this hurdle. BNIM
being a new methodology, this means that each individual applicant may feel
very much on their own in this task -- which at a certain point seems to
take almost as much as work as doing the research, or at least to be the
most difficult part of it.
In the most recent (October 2005 version 5) of the 'Short Guide to BNIM',
I've put in various points (and especially an appendix) about 'BNIM and
ethics' that have arisen in informal discussion during trainings and after,
but these very general points and not related to the specificity of ethics
committees and the particularity of specific research projects.
I've therefore woken up this morning with the idea that those who have
managed to get their applications through such a committee could help those
who haven't, and thus help each other and increase our overall 'critical
mass'.
This would involve those who have got their applications through such a
committee (or even have failed to get their applications accepted, I don't
know whether there are any of these) doing one or preferably two things:
1) Sending me in confidence the successful or unsuccessful application,
saying whether it was or wasn't successful.
2) Sending me (could be later) a short narrative about the important events
and experiences in the submission and reception of the application (this
could be later).
What I would then do is to identify what seem to be the 'features' of
successful applications and the 'issues' that arose in writing them. I could
then produce a short report synthesising such material (mentioning no names
and no institutions, this is obviously important) which could be a resource
for new applicants.
This synthesising report would be sent to the BNIM network (and ?perhaps? To
those who are thinking of doing a BNIM course but hesitate because of their
fear that it would be too difficult for them to get their application
eventually accepted) so that we all benefit from 'best practice'.
If you can help in this project, please do.
Best wishes
Tom.
--
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THE OLD ONE NO LONGER WORKS
Tom Wengraf
24a Princes Avenue
Muswell Hill
London N10 3LR
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