The UEC has drafted templates for researchers to use as a starting point when developing a Participant Information Sheet and Consent Form for their projects.
It is important that you tailor the Participant Information Sheet and Consent Form for your participant group and project. For example, use appropriate language for the age and understanding of your participant group, remove paragraphs related to risk where not relevant and only use the options on the Consent Form related to audio recording, human tissue etc., if these apply to your project.
If your project is within the remit of your Department or School Ehtics Committee you should use your Department or School Ethics Committee details as the contact point in the Participant Information Sheet and not the Secretary of the University Ethics Committee as set out in the template.
These templates will not be appropriate for NHS studies and the NHS template should be used if you are making an IRAS application.
Data protection
In order to comply with its responsibilities under data protection legislation, the University of Strathclyde is also required to provide important information regarding how we use research participants’ personal information and their rights under the legislation.
Please ensure that whenever personal information is being processed for research purposes, each participant is provided with a Privacy Notice. This Privacy Notice should be used in conjunction with the above PIS consent form template, to ensure all necessary information is provided to participants.
University Branding
All participant documentation must have the correct University branding.
Digital Accessibility
Digital accessibility is about making sure that everyone can access our information. In order to have informed consent, it's important that online or digital content is developed in a way that allows people to use it no matter how they choose to access it (e.g. with assistive technologies). There are many helpful resources that can help you to make your participant documentation more accessible.
- A guide to understanding what makes a typeface accessible – The Readability Group
- Captioning Key and Description Key – Described and Captioned Media Programme
- Making audio and video media accessible – W3C
- Create and verify PDF accessibility (Acrobat Pro) – Adobe
- PAC 2021 Free PDF Accessibility Checker – PDF/UA Foundation
The University also has guidance and training on digital accessibility:
- tips for creating accessible content.
- MyPlace course: Introduction to Digital Accessibility
- MyPlace course: Microsoft Office Accessibility
Some additional links: