hi guys, i was wondering if anyone know if i can use university students as my pilot test or not, and how to get a low risk ethic assessment?

thank you for your time and help.

Hm, your post is a "little" bit vague, so my answer is: "depends".

Ask them about their internet consum - sure, will pass ethics (as long as the proposal is sound)

Cut their heads open and study brain chemistry - no chance. ;) See where I am going? ;)

It depends on things like whether your research question can be answered by using student participants (I personally am skeptical of the number of studies that use only student participants and then try to generalise the results to 'people in general', as students are a very specific group). Your ethics assessment will depend on things like how much risk is in your research design, as RinaL pointed out, and also things like who is to be included in the study and how you will protect their well-being - for example, it might be a good idea to say you will recruit only people who are not classed as vulnerable, and to show how your research design should not put people at any additional risk.

If it is psychology then yes (as long as they meet the criteria)! Easier to recruit students than "normal" people. You should maybe ask your supervisor.

I'm in Psychology and my feeling is that way too many people use the 'recruiting students is easier' approach and end up with results that can't be generalised. Recruitment's undoubtedly one of the major headaches of doing research, but I do think it is worth putting a lot of thought into the demographics you need to really answer the research questions.

Fine for a pilot (which still requires ethical approval), but as per other comments not for main study. Convenience sample not appropriate for quality research.

Yes, but as the question was can she/he recruit students (from a pragmatic point of view for his pilot) I think the answer would be yes in normal circumstances - at least in psychology and if appropriate for the research question. You see it done in top quality journals. Generalisability is an issue though, I agree.

Hi Hini,

This is entirely dependent on your university's ethics process. I conduct research at two different universities, and how they handle student recruitment is quite different.

University 1: If recruiting participants where the eligibility criteria requires that they be students of said university, then it is a high-risk application. If recruiting participants where the eligibility criteria does not state whether they need to be students, but will recruit around campus alongside other venues, then unless the project is dealing with high-risk issues (i.e. experience of trauma, sexual assault, etc) it is considered low-risk.

University 2: If recruiting participants but not specifying that they need to be students, but are planning on advertising in university venues (i.e. a gym etc) the application is considered high risk on the possibility that a student will be recruited.

So Uni 1 allows for recruiting on campus, as long as the study does not specifically target students. Uni 2 does not allow for this.

To give an example, I recently did a pilot study that used students at Uni 1. This study was high risk because it was 1), specifically targeting students (i.e. had to be students in the eligibility criteria) and 2) because it was exploring experiences of discrimination and had implications for the University.

Thanks guys. Very nice of you. also it 's clear that i probably still need to ask my supervisors. Thanks again=)