VU Amsterdam endorses the Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity that calls for honesty, scrupulousness, transparency, independence, and responsibility. One important aspect of scientific integrity is dealing with human subjects in an ethically acceptable and responsible way. A human subject is a person that partakes in, or is subject to, research in which data on or from this person are being collected. This includes, for instance, people that might be representing themselves or the interests of others (e.g. an organization) in an experiment, interview, survey, online data source and observational study.
The SBE Ethical Review Board ensures that research involving human subjects is carried out in compliance with relevant institutional, national and international ethics regulations and legal requirements. The main instruments that guide the work of the Ethical Review Board are the:
- SBE Research Ethics Regulations for Researchers
- Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (Nederlandse Gedragscode wetenschappelijke integriteit)
The Ethical Review Board currently consists of the following persons:
- prof. dr. Harmen Verbruggen (ERB Chair, Department of Spatial Economics)
- prof. dr. Martijn van den Assem (ERB Member, Department of Finance)
- dr. Menusch Khadjavi Pour (ERB Member, Department of Spatial Economics),
- dr. Maura Soekijad (ERB Member, KIN Center for Digital Innovation),
- dr. Marc van der Wardt (ERB Member, Department of Ethics, Governance and Society)
- dr. Kacana Khadjavi Pour (ERB Secretary, SBE Research Office)
- Leighann Kimble (ERB Secretary, KIN Center for Digital Innovation)
The Ethical Review Board can be contacted via email at rerb.sbe@vu.nl
Online Ethics Self-Check: Regardless of whether projects deal with human subjects or not, completing the ethics review prior to the start of research is necessary for all research projects at SBE. This ensures that SBE fulfills its legal requirement to register all projects that deal with personal data and risky international collaborations. Moreover, completing the ethics review promotes good scientific practices and provides researchers with ethics compliance reports that can be included in submissions to scientific journals or in grant applications.
In order to complete the ethics review, researchers can make use of the online ethics self-check which is a quick and easy tool that assesses whether research projects comply with the ethics guidelines.
Researchers whose projects are purely theoretical, that do not involve any data on human subjects, personal data, or are medical will automatically receive a report informing them that they do not have to complete the extended ethics check.
Researchers whose projects involve human subjects or personal data and that are in line with the Ethics regulations will automatically receive a report that confirms that their research is in line with the ethics regulations and they can proceed with their research.
Researchers whose projects involve personal data and have ethics issues will be asked to download a copy of their ethics application so that they can send it to the Ethics Review Board for further evaluation.
All master students are expected to read the Research Ethics Guide for Master Students at SBE before they apply for a research ethics review. The guide explains the research ethics procedure at SBE, the importance of the procedure, as well as the different steps to be followed when submitting a research ethics review. The guide also provides detailed explanations and examples of terms and terminology that master students may not be familiar with. After reading the guide, master students are expected to complete the online self-check.
Online self-check: With this quick and easy tool, you can check whether your master thesis complies with ethics guidelines or needs to be revised . In case, the conclusion of the self-check is that your study does not need to be revised, you will receive a PDF report of the answers given on the self-check, and a statement by the Ethical Review Board that:
- your research does not deal with data on human subjects and therefore no research ethics review is required.
- you have indicated that that the data used in the proposed master thesis research project has already undergone a research ethics review by another Ethical Review Board at the VU, in the Netherlands or another European country.
- your research complies with SBE’s research ethics guidelines.
Students that cannot revise their study designs should ask their supervisors to contact the Ethical Review Board (rerb.sbe@vu.nl).
In line with the Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity, all scientific research conducted at the SBE must be honest, scrupulous, transparent, independent, and research. Confidential counsellors can be contacted with questions about research integrity or concerns about possible violations of academic integrity rules (e.g. concerning authorship, plagiarism, or manipulation/fabrication of research data).
The Confidential Counsellors that are part of the social sciences cluster and that have been assigned to SBE are listed on the Academic integrity at VU-VUMC page. Researchers may contact the confidential counsellor assigned to the SBE or any of the others listed on this website.
The criteria for authorship are described in the Netherlands code of conduct for research integrity (art. 3.31), but they are not always clear to everyone or are interpreted in different ways. Therefore, we have created guidelines for SBE researchers.
Study participants that seek information on the ethics aspects of a SBE affiliated research project are encouraged to contact the researchers directly.
Complaints on an ethics decision by the Ethical Review Board, can be directed to the Ethical Review Board Secretariate (rerb.sbe@vu.nl). These complaints will be forwarded to the SBE Faculty Board.
Complaints on the academic integrity and conduct of a researcher during a study should be directed to the Confidential Counsellors. Information on how this can be done is available in the section above and on the Academic integrity at VU-VUMC page.
SBE Research Ethics Regulations for Researchers
Research Ethics Guide for Master Students at SBE
Self-Check form for researchers (Online)