Psy-REC Procedures

Undergraduate research projects (including honours theses) must be submitted to the committee for research ethics approval. We expect that instructors/supervisors will work with students to complete the ethics application form, and will carefully review the applications before submission. 

This document contains an overview of Psy-REC procedures. Please review it carefully as it contains very important information on how to submit your application. The main steps are as follows:

  • Prepare an electronic copy of the application form and appendices, with the latter in a single document if possible. Psy-REC guidelines, materials, and instructions (including application and consent form templates, examples of successful applications and the TCPS2 guidelines are available below)
  • Please send your application to the Psy-REC graduate student assistant, Adriana Cashwell (adriana.cashwell@usask.ca). If you have specific questions please contact the Psy-REC Chair, Michel Desjardins (michel.desjardins@usask.ca)
  • Your application will be processed as quickly as possible, typically within 5 to 7 business days

 Please note that certain research activities are exempt from Psy-REC review. These include the following:

  • Research that relies exclusively on publicly available information
  • Observation of people in public places where there is no expectation of privacy, no interaction or intervention staged by the researcher, and the dissemination of results does not allow for identification of specific individuals. 

 A complete summary of Psy-REC procedures can be found here: undergraduates/psychological-research-ethics-2022-234.ppt

Application Materials - Course-Based Research

Psy-REC has developed many materials to assist you in completing an application. 

Course-Based Research Projects

Instructors and students in lab courses conducting course-based research projects will want to review and use the following documents in particular: 

Guidelines: undergraduates/course-based-research-guidelines.doc

Application: undergraduates/course-based-research-application.doc

Application Materials - Individual Projects

Individual Research Projects (including honours theses)

Instructors, supervisors, and students involved in individual or small group research projects will make use of the following documents:

Application Form Template: undergraduates/application-form-with-standard-statements.docx

Consent Form Template: undergraduates/consent-form-template.docx

Consent Guidelines: undergraduates/consent-guidelines.doc

Purpose of Study: undergraduates/purpose-of-the-sudy1.pdf

PsyREC Amendment-form: undergraduates/psyrec-amendment-form.docx

General Materials

The following documents are provided to you as a resources as you plan your projects, construct your Psy-REC application, and conduct your research

TCPS2: undergraduates/tcps2-2018.pdf

Psychology Participant Pool Instructions: undergraduates/participant-pool-instructions-2022-20231.pdf

Completed Applications - Examples

Good models of completed Psy-REC applications for various types of research projects are included below.