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Human Participants in Research

Home » Research Ethics » Human Participants in Research

All research involving human participants requires review and approval by York’s University’s Research Ethics Board (the Human Participants Review Committee) prior to beginning the research.

Does My Research Require Ethics Review?

For research to be subject to review it must be considered “research” according to the Tri-Council Policy Statement TCPS 2 (2022) and it must involve “human participants.”

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Protocol Submission Dates, Deadlines, and Processing Times

Protocols are accepted on a weekly or rolling basis.  Protocols received no later than a Thursday are – barring any significant issues or deficiencies with the protocol – forwarded to the committee for review the following Tuesday.

Please be advised that protocols received after Friday November 14, 2025, will not be circulated to the committee until the New Year. 

In addition, due to the significant volume of protocols generally received in November, protocols received up to and including Friday November 14, 2025 will be reviewed by the committee; however, committee comments and/or approvals may not be forwarded to the researchers until the 3rd week in January 2026 when the University re-opens.

Update: Revised Ethics Review Timelines

Over the past two years, the volume and complexity of applications received by the ORE have steadily increased. In the meantime, the ORE has been working to develop other resources and guidance documents to improve ethics processes. As a result, processing times for ethics review have changed. Please review the current application response timelines to ensure you can meet your own research objectives.

Initial application review: Expect the review feedback to be sent to you within 25 - 30 working business days after your application has been submitted for review.

Revisions: Expect the review of your revisions to take 10 to 15 business days after being submitted for review.

Modifications: Expect the review of amendments to take 10 to 15 business days after being submitted for review.

These times may increase during peak periods such as in March, June, and November.

This duration may also vary if the application is incomplete when received.

Certain research contexts require additional ethics review processes and approvals.  Specifically, but not limited to, research conducted in educational institutions, hospitals and/or medical clinics, research conducted in foreign countries and research conducted in, on or about First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities all require additional ethics review processes and/or approvals to be obtained.

Guidelines are in place to assist researchers in navigating the additional ethics review requirements.  Please consult the relevant Guidelines below or contact ORE for further information.

ORE Virtual Office Hours

ORE hosts virtual office hours via Zoom every Wednesday between 12 pm - 1 pm. 

Join Zoom meeting to attend virtual office hours (opens in new window) 

Meeting ID: 966 4558 9774 

Please drop in if you have any questions. No appointment is necessary.

Workshops and Seminars

ORE provides a variety of educational and outreach activities throughout the academic year. Researchers may contact ore@yorku.ca to book an appointment or request a presentation for the following:

This presentation is made available to all researchers (Staff/Faculty/Students) and provides a general overview of ethics policies, procedures and protocols.  All aspects of the requirements for the submission of an ethics protocol are covered, as are general questions regarding ethics review processes. 

This presentation can be delivered in an Undergraduate or Graduate class, Faculty Council meeting, or any other meeting where ethics education or outreach may be required.

In addition to providing an overview of ethics review processes, policies and procedures, the Brown Bag Series will provide new resources on research ethics, relevant to researchers conducting research with human participants.
At this time there are no scheduled brown-bag sessions.

To support the work of the Delegated Research Ethics Review Committees.

At this time there are no scheduled information sessions.

Policies, Guidelines and Templates

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YULink

Visit YULink, York’s hub for faculty and staff, for further Ethics information, resources and documents.

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